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"content": "\u003cdiv>\n\u003cp>A Monday image from Burning Man webcam showing inundated playa at Black Rock City.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>The weather forecast for the rest of the week at Burning Man: perfect. T\u003ca target=\"_self\" href=\"http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?map.x=178&map.y=68&minlon=-123&maxlon=-115&minlat=37.19&maxlat=42.03&mapwidth=354&site=rev&zmx=1&zmy=1#.U_zB9Ly0-AQ\" rel=\"noopener\">he National Weather Service says\u003c/a> the weather will be clear and hot — temperatures in the mid-80s today ranging into the low- \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/26/burning-man-weather-forecast/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"rssmi_more\" rel=\"noopener\"> …read more\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Source: \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/26/burning-man-weather-forecast/\" target=\"_self\" title=\"Burning Man Weather: Rain and Muck, Followed by Sun and Rave\" rel=\"noopener\">News Fix Arts\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>When Stephen Spielberg was looking for someone who could make dinosaurs seem plausible in \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em>, he asked fellow filmmaker Richard Attenborough to do something he hadn’t done in almost 14 years: act. Plenty of performers could look at green screens and convey a sense of wonder. What Attenborough could do while playing the owner of Jurassic Park, figured Spielberg, was flesh out the bigger picture — the why. And when he did, it sounded almost as if he was stating the filmmaking credo he’d lived by all his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to show them something that wasn’t an illusion,” Attenborough’s park owner tells Laura Dern, as his dream comes crashing down around them. “Something that was real … something they could see and touch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10141119\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/ap648973655288-9b6724ca85a0056cbfdc6adc1d7fbf0c6765957a-e1409007174286.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/ap648973655288-9b6724ca85a0056cbfdc6adc1d7fbf0c6765957a-e1409007174286.jpg\" alt=\"Director Richard Attenborough won two Academy Awards for his movie, <em>Gandhi</em>.\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10141119\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Director Richard Attenborough won two Academy Awards for his movie, \u003cem>Gandhi\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That is more or less what Attenborough had been doing for five decades at that point, ever since 1947, when he was so persuasive in a British film noir called \u003cem>Brighton Rock\u003c/em>, that he risked being typecast as a thug when he played a baby-faced but cold-blooded teenager who killed his friends as casually as he killed his enemies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If raising gooseflesh was what Attenborough did at the start of his acting career, raising consciousness was his aim once he stepped behind the camera. He personalized cautionary tales in \u003cem>Oh! What A Lovely War\u003c/em>, and his epic about military miscalculation, \u003cem>A Bridge Too Far\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he spent 20 years and all of his personal fortune, even mortgaging his house, in a struggle to bring a story about non-violence to the screen. It was a story Hollywood was convinced would never sell, about how the British empire was brought virtually to its knees, by a frail wisp of a man named Gandhi who employed passive resistance and hunger strikes to demand “that the fighting will stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That plea was echoed five years later in \u003cem>Cry Freedom\u003c/em>, when Attenborough engaged audiences in the struggle against apartheid by concentrating his story on the words and personality of South African activist Steve Biko.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Attenborough tackled less weighty subjects, the fire sometimes went out of his film making. His movies \u003cem>Chaplin\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>A Chorus Line\u003c/em> didn’t connect with audiences. \u003cem>Shadowlands\u003c/em> did, although it was arguably a tougher sell — a story of cancer and Christian theology that briefly turned Oxford academic C.S. Lewis into a matinee idol — mostly because Lewis had big ideas\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And big ideas were what fired the imagination of Richard Attenborough — ideas that he could turn into something an audience could see and touch. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Director+Richard+Attenborough+Brought+Intimacy+to+Big+Ideas&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>When Stephen Spielberg was looking for someone who could make dinosaurs seem plausible in \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em>, he asked fellow filmmaker Richard Attenborough to do something he hadn’t done in almost 14 years: act. Plenty of performers could look at green screens and convey a sense of wonder. What Attenborough could do while playing the owner of Jurassic Park, figured Spielberg, was flesh out the bigger picture — the why. And when he did, it sounded almost as if he was stating the filmmaking credo he’d lived by all his life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I wanted to show them something that wasn’t an illusion,” Attenborough’s park owner tells Laura Dern, as his dream comes crashing down around them. “Something that was real … something they could see and touch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10141119\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/ap648973655288-9b6724ca85a0056cbfdc6adc1d7fbf0c6765957a-e1409007174286.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/ap648973655288-9b6724ca85a0056cbfdc6adc1d7fbf0c6765957a-e1409007174286.jpg\" alt=\"Director Richard Attenborough won two Academy Awards for his movie, <em>Gandhi</em>.\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10141119\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Director Richard Attenborough won two Academy Awards for his movie, \u003cem>Gandhi\u003c/em>.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That is more or less what Attenborough had been doing for five decades at that point, ever since 1947, when he was so persuasive in a British film noir called \u003cem>Brighton Rock\u003c/em>, that he risked being typecast as a thug when he played a baby-faced but cold-blooded teenager who killed his friends as casually as he killed his enemies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If raising gooseflesh was what Attenborough did at the start of his acting career, raising consciousness was his aim once he stepped behind the camera. He personalized cautionary tales in \u003cem>Oh! What A Lovely War\u003c/em>, and his epic about military miscalculation, \u003cem>A Bridge Too Far\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he spent 20 years and all of his personal fortune, even mortgaging his house, in a struggle to bring a story about non-violence to the screen. It was a story Hollywood was convinced would never sell, about how the British empire was brought virtually to its knees, by a frail wisp of a man named Gandhi who employed passive resistance and hunger strikes to demand “that the fighting will stop.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That plea was echoed five years later in \u003cem>Cry Freedom\u003c/em>, when Attenborough engaged audiences in the struggle against apartheid by concentrating his story on the words and personality of South African activist Steve Biko.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Attenborough tackled less weighty subjects, the fire sometimes went out of his film making. His movies \u003cem>Chaplin\u003c/em>, and \u003cem>A Chorus Line\u003c/em> didn’t connect with audiences. \u003cem>Shadowlands\u003c/em> did, although it was arguably a tougher sell — a story of cancer and Christian theology that briefly turned Oxford academic C.S. Lewis into a matinee idol — mostly because Lewis had big ideas\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And big ideas were what fired the imagination of Richard Attenborough — ideas that he could turn into something an audience could see and touch. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Director+Richard+Attenborough+Brought+Intimacy+to+Big+Ideas&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>I heard a rumor about three months ago that the Stephen Wirtz Gallery was closing and decided to just ignore it. My magical thinking was that, if I pretended I hadn’t heard it, it would turn out not to be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then the rumor got louder, which is why I am at the gallery with Stephen Wirtz, who is showing me his latest collection. Wirtz flips through a thick binder full of images that look like faxes from the front line. In fact, they are radio photographs, images transmitted by radio during World War II. What is interesting about them, he points out, is the crop marks that surround sections of each image, physical manifestations of reality being constructed. They document decisions being made about which parts of historic events would be reproduced, distributed, and viewed through the mass media of the day. Even though the gallery he has run for decades is about to close, Wirtz, who is very much like (and actually once was) a history teacher in appearance and demeanor, finds himself absorbed by these images because they are evidence of something that is invisible today. This kind of editing happens digitally now, the process of choosing no longer leaves a trace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I am at the gallery to talk to Stephen and Connie Wirtz about their long and illustrious history, but they are slippery. Stephen doesn’t want to be maudlin about the life change he is going through, and Connie doesn’t like to pin down time. When I ask when the gallery first started, she begins to answer, decides not to mid-stream, looks at Stephen, wonders if she should and then says, “I don’t really like anyone to know how long I’ve been doing anything, because it’s kind of like, ‘It took you THAT long?'” They are nothing if not humble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So I contact a bunch of folks who have been involved with the gallery and ask \u003cem>them\u003c/em> about the Wirtzes’ history and what they will miss most when the 49 Geary gallery closes. I ask their neighbors Frish Brandt at Fraenkel Gallery and Robert Koch, whose gallery is upstairs, and artists Todd Hido, Catherine Wagner, Melanie Pullen, Deborah Oropollo, and Sean McFarland, who have all been represented by the gallery, some for decades. The answers are unanimous, they will miss the gallery’s eclecticism and its warmth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140976\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140976\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido.jpg\" alt=\"Installation of a Todd Hido exhibition; Courtesy Stephen Wirtz Gallery\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Installation of a Todd Hido exhibition; Courtesy Stephen Wirtz Gallery\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What’s interesting about the Stephen Wirtz Gallery is how it has always reflected the couple’s unique chemistry and natural curiosity. Stephen says Connie is the vision and Connie says Stephen is the words. I love a couple whose strengths combine to form one well-functioning machine. And that is what the Wirtzes have been since they opened their first gallery, which sold Art Deco objects in the early 1970s. While doing research for that space, Stephen became interested in the photography he was encountering and the couple began to show the work of people like Man Ray, Lazslo Moholy-Nagy, Willard Van Dyke, Harold Edgerton, and Ralph Steiner. In fact, the first photograph Connie ever purchased for herself was a Man Ray. She remembers thinking, “You can actually BUY a Man Ray?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, the gallery — along with 49 Geary housemates Fraenkel and Robert Koch — has also been instrumental in integrating photography into the contemporary art landscape. Sandra Phillips, SFMOMA’s Senior Curator of Photography, says, “The Wirtzes were very, very interested in photography, but they were not exclusively a photography gallery. Because they were open to photography, because they showed a lot of work by photographers as well as by all sorts of other artists, they helped to lessen the marginalization of photography. I think they were responding to what was happening here in the Bay Area. Here we have wonderful artists who work in all media, including (some would say especially) photography.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Wirtzes claim that showing photos alongside paintings and sculpture happened organically. Early on, they found themselves with a small collection of works by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. They had a handful of photographs, an assortment of prints and one painting, which was a real discovery, but they didn’t have enough of any one medium to mount the show. So they decided to show what they had, which apparently was not done back in the day. Since then, the gallery has continued to resist definition, which Stephen attributes to “non-hierarchical thinking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a collector, Stephen tends to find things that people aren’t looking at or for. Things that are “extremely layered, yet ignored because they don’t fit into the economic hierarchy of the art world. But that leaves them open for me to find and for me to go into that corner and really look at things that nobody else seems to be looking at, which are oftentimes much richer than things that aren’t being ignored, that are being featured.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which is kind of like young Bay Area artists for Connie. “You see somebody’s work and nobody knows who they are, but because no one is looking, you get the chance to look deeper,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, Frish Brandt says, “Stephen and Connie helped lay the groundwork for the San Francisco art community 35 years ago.” Robert Koch adds, “They championed local artists and cultivated the local art community. They represented a strong group of talented artists and consistently had a strong exhibition program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen is also proud of the little-known and seldom-trumpeted fact that the gallery has represented so many great female artists over its 30-plus year history. Off the top of their heads, Stephen and Connie name a handful of women artists (Laurie Reid, Kathryn Van Dyke, Catherine Wagner, Ulrike Palmbach, Lucy Puls, Barbara Crane, Sandra Shannonhouse, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Melanie Pullen, Catherine Spence) they were proud to represent, but know there have been many more. They discovered Deborah Oropallo, who describes the gallery as a “second family,” while she was a grad student at Berkeley. Oropallo says, given all the work it takes to run a gallery, she admires the consistent quality of the work found at Wirtz. She adds, “I must sincerely say that I love the work of every single artist the Wirtz Gallery represented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I press them, the Wirtzes admit the show they remember most vividly is one they mounted in 1979. They had helped Richard Avedon secure an exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum, so he offered them the opportunity to concurrently show some of his work in the gallery. True to form, they didn’t choose the (more commercially viable) fashion photos. Instead they asked to see Avedon’s latest work, which was three different images of Francis Bacon, two single portraits and one with the two portraits combined. They filled the gallery with multiples of these three images in various sizes. The show was conceptually related to Muybridge, making the gallery into a whole world of Francis Bacons confronting the viewer. Connie and Stephen had conceived it on their own and, when Avedon saw it, he said, “That’s brilliant.” Stephen remembers, “It was, actually, brilliant. I’m not saying we are, but it was. And that was the show that I still look back on — collaboratively, the artist, the two of us — it was (“exciting” chimes Connie) — it was amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the couple has exhibited other photo greats, such as Paul Schiek, Chris McCaw, Alec Soth, Lewis Paltz, Doug and Mike Starn, Masahisa Fukase, Irving Penn, alongside locals Jim Goldberg, Larry Sultan, Todd Hido, Doug Rickard and most recently Sean McFarland, among others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When most galleries defined themselves by a particular medium, Stephen and Connie preferred to mix things up. You never knew what to expect walking into their dramatic, beautifully lit space, which faces Geary Street and has a long bank of windows down one side of the main gallery, or who you’ll find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best stories are like photographer Melanie Pullen’s. Her first visit to the gallery was to see a Starn Twins show, which had already been taken down by the time she arrived. She wandered around feeling disappointed and then encountered Stephen, who took the time to unearth images, giving her a personally guided tour through the work. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, this was not an unusual occurrence. Even though Stephen seldom remembered who I was, he would often invite me into his office to show me his latest collection and seemed to relish explaining where things had come from and what they meant. McFarland says this is what made Stephen Wirtz Gallery so special. “The Wirtzes were so generous with their time and willing to talk with you about the work. Whether you were a 23-year-old interested graduate student or a collector with lots of money, they always seemed to be very equal with how they treated people. I always admired that quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Pullen’s first encounter with Stephen, she mentioned that she was a photographer and that her \u003ci>Fashion Victims\u003c/i> series was showing at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles. Stephen took note and three months later Pullen was showing at Wirtz. McFarland had a similar experience, securing a solo show just seven weeks after a studio visit with the Wirtzes. This is not usual practice for an art gallery, which would normally have its exhibition schedule locked at least a year into the future. When I asked the Wirtzes if leaving space in their schedule to react quickly to new discoveries was part of their philosophy as gallerists, they responded that it wasn’t intentional, it was just something that happened. “We aren’t good business people,” says Connie. Stephen modifies that statement slightly: “We’ve never been known to be good business people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pointing out another thing that will be missed, Catherine Wagner says, “Connie has this very dry sense of humor. She was always telling stories about the ‘70s and ‘80s. Sometimes I would get lost in where we were going. Both Larry Sultan and I one time joked that her telephone calls were yet another creative act of the Wirtz Gallery.” Connie’s phone calls, which I experienced first-hand while scheduling the interview for this story, were mentioned several times. What I loved about them was how they revealed the inner workings of a creative mind that finds connections in pretty much everything and feels compelled to explore them. Connie is all jazz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I speak with the Wirtzes about the reason behind their closure, they tell me that the catalyst was a large rent increase. This isn’t news, many galleries have vacated 49 Geary after rents more than doubled in recent years. The building has gone from a peak of about 18 galleries to just a handful today. In fact, folks once sneered at what they called the “art mall.” I wonder if they are still sneering today…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then Stephen talks about the nature of time having changed. He says, “Art is about time. It takes time to make it. It takes time to grow into it. It takes time to see it. It takes time to connect to it. It takes time to live with it. And I think people’s use of time is different now. It just feels like people are feeling the need to economize with their time, use their time in some efficient manner and I don’t think an interaction with art is efficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not that people are not coming to the gallery because they don’t like art; they don’t want to spend the time. So they go to the art fairs, or they go to the Internet, or the museum, because all of those are more efficient uses of time. I think that culture involves an agreement to spend time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a complex thought. We are all so busy figuring out what we have to do next and interacting with what someone just thought and shared a moment ago that there is no time left for the present. And so the thought of finding, securing and building another space that would end up a stage wherein no one appreciates the set was just too much for the Wirtzes to contemplate. For the first time in their lives, they say they do not know what they will do next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I ask about the funniest thing that ever happened in the gallery, Connie says that funny things happen every day. “Though,” she adds, “what I think is funny is usually only funny to me.” Stephen says the funniest thing about the gallery is that they survived as long as they did. “We have both had the luxury and paid the price of being ourselves,” he adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My wish for the Wirtzes is that they become free of space, but continue to share their vision of art and life more often in more places. The Wirtzes don’t have to be missed because they aren’t going far, it will just be more difficult to drop in for a visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Stephen Wirtz Gallery officially closes its doors at 49 Geary today, Saturday, August 23, 2014.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I heard a rumor about three months ago that the Stephen Wirtz Gallery was closing and decided to just ignore it. My magical thinking was that, if I pretended I hadn’t heard it, it would turn out not to be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then the rumor got louder, which is why I am at the gallery with Stephen Wirtz, who is showing me his latest collection. Wirtz flips through a thick binder full of images that look like faxes from the front line. In fact, they are radio photographs, images transmitted by radio during World War II. What is interesting about them, he points out, is the crop marks that surround sections of each image, physical manifestations of reality being constructed. They document decisions being made about which parts of historic events would be reproduced, distributed, and viewed through the mass media of the day. Even though the gallery he has run for decades is about to close, Wirtz, who is very much like (and actually once was) a history teacher in appearance and demeanor, finds himself absorbed by these images because they are evidence of something that is invisible today. This kind of editing happens digitally now, the process of choosing no longer leaves a trace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I am at the gallery to talk to Stephen and Connie Wirtz about their long and illustrious history, but they are slippery. Stephen doesn’t want to be maudlin about the life change he is going through, and Connie doesn’t like to pin down time. When I ask when the gallery first started, she begins to answer, decides not to mid-stream, looks at Stephen, wonders if she should and then says, “I don’t really like anyone to know how long I’ve been doing anything, because it’s kind of like, ‘It took you THAT long?'” They are nothing if not humble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So I contact a bunch of folks who have been involved with the gallery and ask \u003cem>them\u003c/em> about the Wirtzes’ history and what they will miss most when the 49 Geary gallery closes. I ask their neighbors Frish Brandt at Fraenkel Gallery and Robert Koch, whose gallery is upstairs, and artists Todd Hido, Catherine Wagner, Melanie Pullen, Deborah Oropollo, and Sean McFarland, who have all been represented by the gallery, some for decades. The answers are unanimous, they will miss the gallery’s eclecticism and its warmth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140976\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140976\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido.jpg\" alt=\"Installation of a Todd Hido exhibition; Courtesy Stephen Wirtz Gallery\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/hido-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Installation of a Todd Hido exhibition; Courtesy Stephen Wirtz Gallery\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What’s interesting about the Stephen Wirtz Gallery is how it has always reflected the couple’s unique chemistry and natural curiosity. Stephen says Connie is the vision and Connie says Stephen is the words. I love a couple whose strengths combine to form one well-functioning machine. And that is what the Wirtzes have been since they opened their first gallery, which sold Art Deco objects in the early 1970s. While doing research for that space, Stephen became interested in the photography he was encountering and the couple began to show the work of people like Man Ray, Lazslo Moholy-Nagy, Willard Van Dyke, Harold Edgerton, and Ralph Steiner. In fact, the first photograph Connie ever purchased for herself was a Man Ray. She remembers thinking, “You can actually BUY a Man Ray?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, the gallery — along with 49 Geary housemates Fraenkel and Robert Koch — has also been instrumental in integrating photography into the contemporary art landscape. Sandra Phillips, SFMOMA’s Senior Curator of Photography, says, “The Wirtzes were very, very interested in photography, but they were not exclusively a photography gallery. Because they were open to photography, because they showed a lot of work by photographers as well as by all sorts of other artists, they helped to lessen the marginalization of photography. I think they were responding to what was happening here in the Bay Area. Here we have wonderful artists who work in all media, including (some would say especially) photography.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Wirtzes claim that showing photos alongside paintings and sculpture happened organically. Early on, they found themselves with a small collection of works by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. They had a handful of photographs, an assortment of prints and one painting, which was a real discovery, but they didn’t have enough of any one medium to mount the show. So they decided to show what they had, which apparently was not done back in the day. Since then, the gallery has continued to resist definition, which Stephen attributes to “non-hierarchical thinking.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a collector, Stephen tends to find things that people aren’t looking at or for. Things that are “extremely layered, yet ignored because they don’t fit into the economic hierarchy of the art world. But that leaves them open for me to find and for me to go into that corner and really look at things that nobody else seems to be looking at, which are oftentimes much richer than things that aren’t being ignored, that are being featured.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which is kind of like young Bay Area artists for Connie. “You see somebody’s work and nobody knows who they are, but because no one is looking, you get the chance to look deeper,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, Frish Brandt says, “Stephen and Connie helped lay the groundwork for the San Francisco art community 35 years ago.” Robert Koch adds, “They championed local artists and cultivated the local art community. They represented a strong group of talented artists and consistently had a strong exhibition program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stephen is also proud of the little-known and seldom-trumpeted fact that the gallery has represented so many great female artists over its 30-plus year history. Off the top of their heads, Stephen and Connie name a handful of women artists (Laurie Reid, Kathryn Van Dyke, Catherine Wagner, Ulrike Palmbach, Lucy Puls, Barbara Crane, Sandra Shannonhouse, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Melanie Pullen, Catherine Spence) they were proud to represent, but know there have been many more. They discovered Deborah Oropallo, who describes the gallery as a “second family,” while she was a grad student at Berkeley. Oropallo says, given all the work it takes to run a gallery, she admires the consistent quality of the work found at Wirtz. She adds, “I must sincerely say that I love the work of every single artist the Wirtz Gallery represented.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I press them, the Wirtzes admit the show they remember most vividly is one they mounted in 1979. They had helped Richard Avedon secure an exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum, so he offered them the opportunity to concurrently show some of his work in the gallery. True to form, they didn’t choose the (more commercially viable) fashion photos. Instead they asked to see Avedon’s latest work, which was three different images of Francis Bacon, two single portraits and one with the two portraits combined. They filled the gallery with multiples of these three images in various sizes. The show was conceptually related to Muybridge, making the gallery into a whole world of Francis Bacons confronting the viewer. Connie and Stephen had conceived it on their own and, when Avedon saw it, he said, “That’s brilliant.” Stephen remembers, “It was, actually, brilliant. I’m not saying we are, but it was. And that was the show that I still look back on — collaboratively, the artist, the two of us — it was (“exciting” chimes Connie) — it was amazing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since then, the couple has exhibited other photo greats, such as Paul Schiek, Chris McCaw, Alec Soth, Lewis Paltz, Doug and Mike Starn, Masahisa Fukase, Irving Penn, alongside locals Jim Goldberg, Larry Sultan, Todd Hido, Doug Rickard and most recently Sean McFarland, among others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When most galleries defined themselves by a particular medium, Stephen and Connie preferred to mix things up. You never knew what to expect walking into their dramatic, beautifully lit space, which faces Geary Street and has a long bank of windows down one side of the main gallery, or who you’ll find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The best stories are like photographer Melanie Pullen’s. Her first visit to the gallery was to see a Starn Twins show, which had already been taken down by the time she arrived. She wandered around feeling disappointed and then encountered Stephen, who took the time to unearth images, giving her a personally guided tour through the work. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, this was not an unusual occurrence. Even though Stephen seldom remembered who I was, he would often invite me into his office to show me his latest collection and seemed to relish explaining where things had come from and what they meant. McFarland says this is what made Stephen Wirtz Gallery so special. “The Wirtzes were so generous with their time and willing to talk with you about the work. Whether you were a 23-year-old interested graduate student or a collector with lots of money, they always seemed to be very equal with how they treated people. I always admired that quality.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Pullen’s first encounter with Stephen, she mentioned that she was a photographer and that her \u003ci>Fashion Victims\u003c/i> series was showing at Ace Gallery in Los Angeles. Stephen took note and three months later Pullen was showing at Wirtz. McFarland had a similar experience, securing a solo show just seven weeks after a studio visit with the Wirtzes. This is not usual practice for an art gallery, which would normally have its exhibition schedule locked at least a year into the future. When I asked the Wirtzes if leaving space in their schedule to react quickly to new discoveries was part of their philosophy as gallerists, they responded that it wasn’t intentional, it was just something that happened. “We aren’t good business people,” says Connie. Stephen modifies that statement slightly: “We’ve never been known to be good business people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pointing out another thing that will be missed, Catherine Wagner says, “Connie has this very dry sense of humor. She was always telling stories about the ‘70s and ‘80s. Sometimes I would get lost in where we were going. Both Larry Sultan and I one time joked that her telephone calls were yet another creative act of the Wirtz Gallery.” Connie’s phone calls, which I experienced first-hand while scheduling the interview for this story, were mentioned several times. What I loved about them was how they revealed the inner workings of a creative mind that finds connections in pretty much everything and feels compelled to explore them. Connie is all jazz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I speak with the Wirtzes about the reason behind their closure, they tell me that the catalyst was a large rent increase. This isn’t news, many galleries have vacated 49 Geary after rents more than doubled in recent years. The building has gone from a peak of about 18 galleries to just a handful today. In fact, folks once sneered at what they called the “art mall.” I wonder if they are still sneering today…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then Stephen talks about the nature of time having changed. He says, “Art is about time. It takes time to make it. It takes time to grow into it. It takes time to see it. It takes time to connect to it. It takes time to live with it. And I think people’s use of time is different now. It just feels like people are feeling the need to economize with their time, use their time in some efficient manner and I don’t think an interaction with art is efficient.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not that people are not coming to the gallery because they don’t like art; they don’t want to spend the time. So they go to the art fairs, or they go to the Internet, or the museum, because all of those are more efficient uses of time. I think that culture involves an agreement to spend time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a complex thought. We are all so busy figuring out what we have to do next and interacting with what someone just thought and shared a moment ago that there is no time left for the present. And so the thought of finding, securing and building another space that would end up a stage wherein no one appreciates the set was just too much for the Wirtzes to contemplate. For the first time in their lives, they say they do not know what they will do next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I ask about the funniest thing that ever happened in the gallery, Connie says that funny things happen every day. “Though,” she adds, “what I think is funny is usually only funny to me.” Stephen says the funniest thing about the gallery is that they survived as long as they did. “We have both had the luxury and paid the price of being ourselves,” he adds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My wish for the Wirtzes is that they become free of space, but continue to share their vision of art and life more often in more places. The Wirtzes don’t have to be missed because they aren’t going far, it will just be more difficult to drop in for a visit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Like, Comment, Share: Inside Facebook’s Artist-in-Residence Program",
"headTitle": "Like, Comment, Share: Inside Facebook’s Artist-in-Residence Program | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Say what you will about Facebook, the company knows how to make an impression. Its headquarters is spectacularly located on the Menlo Park shore of the Dumbarton Bridge, surrounded by salt flats and the San Francisco Bay. The company’s stand-alone, self-made address, One Hacker Way, tells you everything you need to know from the outside about its attempts to subvert a traditional corporate identity. Inside, art is everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140892\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring work by Val Britton\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140892\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring work by Val Britton\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I recently toured Facebook’s Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program with director Drew Bennett to see how artists fit into this new corporate counterculture. As with the online experience, there was much to “like,” much to ignore and still much to consider. The new Frank Gehry-designed offices, called Facebook West, under construction across the street offered a provocative first image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one swift decade, Facebook has become so ubiquitous as to defy preamble about its significance in 21\u003csup>st\u003c/sup> century culture; in all likelihood, you will read this article after seeing it on Facebook. I once saw teenagers ecstatically posing for pictures in front of the parking lot sign — a symbol of rock star success for the digital age. But as well as one might \u003cem>think\u003c/em> they know Facebook from the online experience, it is surprising to find that the real life atmosphere is quite different. Whereas the online experience has moments of feeling controlled or regimented, the corporate campus is designed around shared spaces and connectivity. Large-scale site-specific artworks throughout the offices contribute to an atmosphere of polished rebellion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140893\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring work by Thomas Wold\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140893\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful-400x533.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring work by Thomas Wold\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2012, artist Drew Bennett was invited by then-Facebook designers Ben Barry and Everett Katigbak to create an official artist-in-residence (AIR) program for the Menlo Park headquarters; they worked together previously when Bennett made work for Facebook. Barry, once known as Facebook’s Minister of Propaganda, and Katigbak had previously established a guerrilla printmaking studio within the company and published compelling, rebellion-infused broadsheets to post around campus, introducing a whiff of urban energy to Silicon Valley’s serial beigeness. (One early print featured the question: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”) This experimental print studio eventually became Facebook’s Analog Research Lab, a space for artists and employees to play with different printmaking techniques, simply for the sake of experimentation. A full service wood shop extends these options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140894\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook HQ's Analog Research Lab, Menlo Park, CA\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140894\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook HQ’s Analog Research Lab, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Facebook’s early interest in the street art aesthetic is well documented in the story of muralist David Choe, who accepted payment for office paintings in the form of stock options. A few years later his stock was worth some $200 million after the company went public in 2012; over night Choe became one of the wealthiest artists in the world. Today a Choe diptych presides over the headquarters’ reception area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140895\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook HQ Reception Area, featuring work by David Choe\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140895\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook HQ Reception Area, featuring work by David Choe\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now in its third season after being launched by Bennett, the official AIR program has invited 28 artists to create site-specific commissions in Menlo Park, with additional artists creating works for the New York office. Many others are considered part of the “pre-official program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, artists selected for residency are invited to create for a site of their own choosing, in a flexible amount of time, and offered a standard honorarium. (A flat fee of $10K has been bandied about on the Internet, though Bennett declined to confirm a sum.) Artists are also encouraged to experiment with printmaking techniques in the Analog Research Lab and to present a social event for Facebook staff. At the end of the residency, the work belongs to Facebook – in this sense, the Facebook AIR is more a hybrid of site-specific commissions created while in residence, than a conventional residency program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140896\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside.jpg\" alt=\"Detail: Mural by Brian Barneclo, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140896\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail: Mural by Brian Barneclo, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bennett says it “is a model of how Facebook manages everyone that works there, with generosity and trust to realize work on their own terms.” It helps that the campus is like a very friendly and beautiful upscale mall with all manner of amenities, including free food and drink everywhere. I compared it to Oz; Bennett says others have likened it to Disneyland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former AIR Tucker Nichols said in an email that he went into the experience thinking about “the kinds of questions most workers don’t have time for: What kind of sharing is really going on on Facebook? How do emotions and technology really intersect? Who’s drinking the Kool-Aid? Am I drinking the Kool-Aid? What happens to people who don’t want to drink the Kool-Aid?” He also said that staff seemed really hungry to ask the same questions he had and that “it provided plenty of fodder for making art that reaches into realms beyond my own comprehension.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140897\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook's Artist in Residence program\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140897\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail: Stairwell mural by Robert Minervini, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of course the complexities of Facebook are layered and well known. At the same time that it fosters connectivity, and that it is free, it is also focused on different applications for data mining. Former Bay Area artist Christine Wong Yap declined to participate in the program — the only artist to do so to date — and, in a conversation for this article, cited a deep ambivalence about social media’s addictive qualities, with the recent \u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.abstract\">emotional contagion experiment,\u003c/a> organized between Facebook and Cornell University, as one example of social media’s inordinate influence. In \u003ca href=\"http://blog.christinewongyap.com/2014/03/22/no-thank-you-letting-a-tech-sponsored-art-opportunity-pass/\">a post\u003c/a> on her blog titled “No, Thank You: Letting a tech-sponsored art opportunity pass,” Wong Yap evenly unpacks her reasons for saying ‘no’ to an opportunity that many others might leap at, chalking much of it up to a commitment to public access and an ingrained distrust of corporate interests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140898\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes.jpg\" alt=\"Detail: Site-specific installation by Barbara Holmes, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140898\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail: Site-specific installation by Barbara Holmes, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At present, access to the AIR artwork is limited to employees and, remarkably, the program does not yet even have a Facebook page. One could argue against private corporate art collections as being elitist — in all fairness, they are — but there is also a long historic precedent for this kind of collecting. Access to the Fisher Collection, before it was gifted to SFMOMA, was primarily limited to employees at the Gap Inc. Headquarters. Support for the arts, whether it be public or private, has never been without limitations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as Facebook embraces some brands of rebellion, it is still a vast corporation with complicated politics and privileges. All artists in the program need to be able to work within this paradigm comfortably for the residency to be mutually beneficial, as Bennett is quick to point out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artists aren’t offered white cubes: the spaces are functional and transitory, and the lighting — well, it is what it is. The conditions are dictated by the business at hand, but there is something compelling about Facebook’s imperative to create these opportunities for artists to produce new work on site and for staff to see artists at work. In many ways, perhaps because technology is a 24-hour business and employees work erratic hours and consuming schedules, tech campuses emulate village communities and try to provide the same moments of respite and reflection, culture and engagement, that might be found elsewhere in public. It \u003cem>is\u003c/em> a mediated experience, but as far as office experiences go, it is a lot better than a sea of cubicles organized in a joyless maze, otherwise known as the ’90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140899\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller.jpg\" alt=\"Detail: Stairwell mural by Serena Mitnik-Miller, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140899\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail: Stairwell mural by Serena Mitnik-Miller, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140900\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols.jpg\" alt=\"Site-specific artwork details: Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring works by Tucker Nichols (left) and Rich Jacobs (right). Nichol's work references an insider joke, held over from when the same site housed Sun Microsystems -- there is no building 13.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Site-specific artwork details: Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring works by Tucker Nichols (left) and Rich Jacobs (right). Nichol’s work references an insider joke, held over from when the same site housed Sun Microsystems — there is no building 13.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The program is progressive, even as it navigates the parameters of corporate culture, and it seems there is tremendous potential for it to grow into a model for other companies to follow. Bennet says, “The art is not meant to symbolize wealth or suggest prestige. It’s meant to be inspirational and to raise questions about what is possible within this space. The program is designed to be visually disruptive and to challenge people. My hope for this project long term is that we saturate the walls and pour out into public spaces in the surrounding communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artists are chosen for how well their work embodies a DIY or “hacker ethos,” met with the Bay Area’s hallmark preoccupation with social engagement and models of collaborative production. The vast majority of Menlo Park AIRs have been Bay Area artists — just as those in New York have also been local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140901\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold.jpg\" alt=\"Site-specific installation by Thomas Wold, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140901\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Site-specific installation by Thomas Wold, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There is a lot value in taking the time to reach out into the art community to find emerging talent,” says Bennett. “It doesn’t remedy the battle between the tech class and the creative class, but it does create a point of entry to better understand each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NOTE: A previous version of this article did not cite Everett Katigbak as a co-founder of Facebook’s Analog Research Lab and AIR program. It has been corrected in the article.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "On a recent visit to its One Hacker Way headquarters in Menlo Park, we check out the site-specific works created by mostly Bay Area artists for Facebook's Artist-in-Residence program.\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Say what you will about Facebook, the company knows how to make an impression. Its headquarters is spectacularly located on the Menlo Park shore of the Dumbarton Bridge, surrounded by salt flats and the San Francisco Bay. The company’s stand-alone, self-made address, One Hacker Way, tells you everything you need to know from the outside about its attempts to subvert a traditional corporate identity. Inside, art is everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140892\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring work by Val Britton\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140892\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/britton-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring work by Val Britton\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I recently toured Facebook’s Artist-in-Residence (AIR) program with director Drew Bennett to see how artists fit into this new corporate counterculture. As with the online experience, there was much to “like,” much to ignore and still much to consider. The new Frank Gehry-designed offices, called Facebook West, under construction across the street offered a provocative first image.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one swift decade, Facebook has become so ubiquitous as to defy preamble about its significance in 21\u003csup>st\u003c/sup> century culture; in all likelihood, you will read this article after seeing it on Facebook. I once saw teenagers ecstatically posing for pictures in front of the parking lot sign — a symbol of rock star success for the digital age. But as well as one might \u003cem>think\u003c/em> they know Facebook from the online experience, it is surprising to find that the real life atmosphere is quite different. Whereas the online experience has moments of feeling controlled or regimented, the corporate campus is designed around shared spaces and connectivity. Large-scale site-specific artworks throughout the offices contribute to an atmosphere of polished rebellion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140893\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring work by Thomas Wold\" width=\"640\" height=\"853\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140893\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful-400x533.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/colorful-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring work by Thomas Wold\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2012, artist Drew Bennett was invited by then-Facebook designers Ben Barry and Everett Katigbak to create an official artist-in-residence (AIR) program for the Menlo Park headquarters; they worked together previously when Bennett made work for Facebook. Barry, once known as Facebook’s Minister of Propaganda, and Katigbak had previously established a guerrilla printmaking studio within the company and published compelling, rebellion-infused broadsheets to post around campus, introducing a whiff of urban energy to Silicon Valley’s serial beigeness. (One early print featured the question: “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”) This experimental print studio eventually became Facebook’s Analog Research Lab, a space for artists and employees to play with different printmaking techniques, simply for the sake of experimentation. A full service wood shop extends these options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140894\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook HQ's Analog Research Lab, Menlo Park, CA\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140894\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/facebook-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook HQ’s Analog Research Lab, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Facebook’s early interest in the street art aesthetic is well documented in the story of muralist David Choe, who accepted payment for office paintings in the form of stock options. A few years later his stock was worth some $200 million after the company went public in 2012; over night Choe became one of the wealthiest artists in the world. Today a Choe diptych presides over the headquarters’ reception area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140895\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook HQ Reception Area, featuring work by David Choe\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140895\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/cho-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Facebook HQ Reception Area, featuring work by David Choe\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now in its third season after being launched by Bennett, the official AIR program has invited 28 artists to create site-specific commissions in Menlo Park, with additional artists creating works for the New York office. Many others are considered part of the “pre-official program.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, artists selected for residency are invited to create for a site of their own choosing, in a flexible amount of time, and offered a standard honorarium. (A flat fee of $10K has been bandied about on the Internet, though Bennett declined to confirm a sum.) Artists are also encouraged to experiment with printmaking techniques in the Analog Research Lab and to present a social event for Facebook staff. At the end of the residency, the work belongs to Facebook – in this sense, the Facebook AIR is more a hybrid of site-specific commissions created while in residence, than a conventional residency program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140896\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside.jpg\" alt=\"Detail: Mural by Brian Barneclo, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140896\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/outside-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail: Mural by Brian Barneclo, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Bennett says it “is a model of how Facebook manages everyone that works there, with generosity and trust to realize work on their own terms.” It helps that the campus is like a very friendly and beautiful upscale mall with all manner of amenities, including free food and drink everywhere. I compared it to Oz; Bennett says others have likened it to Disneyland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former AIR Tucker Nichols said in an email that he went into the experience thinking about “the kinds of questions most workers don’t have time for: What kind of sharing is really going on on Facebook? How do emotions and technology really intersect? Who’s drinking the Kool-Aid? Am I drinking the Kool-Aid? What happens to people who don’t want to drink the Kool-Aid?” He also said that staff seemed really hungry to ask the same questions he had and that “it provided plenty of fodder for making art that reaches into realms beyond my own comprehension.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140897\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs.jpg\" alt=\"Facebook's Artist in Residence program\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140897\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/stairs-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail: Stairwell mural by Robert Minervini, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of course the complexities of Facebook are layered and well known. At the same time that it fosters connectivity, and that it is free, it is also focused on different applications for data mining. Former Bay Area artist Christine Wong Yap declined to participate in the program — the only artist to do so to date — and, in a conversation for this article, cited a deep ambivalence about social media’s addictive qualities, with the recent \u003ca href=\"http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.abstract\">emotional contagion experiment,\u003c/a> organized between Facebook and Cornell University, as one example of social media’s inordinate influence. In \u003ca href=\"http://blog.christinewongyap.com/2014/03/22/no-thank-you-letting-a-tech-sponsored-art-opportunity-pass/\">a post\u003c/a> on her blog titled “No, Thank You: Letting a tech-sponsored art opportunity pass,” Wong Yap evenly unpacks her reasons for saying ‘no’ to an opportunity that many others might leap at, chalking much of it up to a commitment to public access and an ingrained distrust of corporate interests.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140898\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes.jpg\" alt=\"Detail: Site-specific installation by Barbara Holmes, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140898\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/holmes-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail: Site-specific installation by Barbara Holmes, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At present, access to the AIR artwork is limited to employees and, remarkably, the program does not yet even have a Facebook page. One could argue against private corporate art collections as being elitist — in all fairness, they are — but there is also a long historic precedent for this kind of collecting. Access to the Fisher Collection, before it was gifted to SFMOMA, was primarily limited to employees at the Gap Inc. Headquarters. Support for the arts, whether it be public or private, has never been without limitations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as Facebook embraces some brands of rebellion, it is still a vast corporation with complicated politics and privileges. All artists in the program need to be able to work within this paradigm comfortably for the residency to be mutually beneficial, as Bennett is quick to point out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artists aren’t offered white cubes: the spaces are functional and transitory, and the lighting — well, it is what it is. The conditions are dictated by the business at hand, but there is something compelling about Facebook’s imperative to create these opportunities for artists to produce new work on site and for staff to see artists at work. In many ways, perhaps because technology is a 24-hour business and employees work erratic hours and consuming schedules, tech campuses emulate village communities and try to provide the same moments of respite and reflection, culture and engagement, that might be found elsewhere in public. It \u003cem>is\u003c/em> a mediated experience, but as far as office experiences go, it is a lot better than a sea of cubicles organized in a joyless maze, otherwise known as the ’90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140899\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller.jpg\" alt=\"Detail: Stairwell mural by Serena Mitnik-Miller, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140899\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/miller-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Detail: Stairwell mural by Serena Mitnik-Miller, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140900\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols.jpg\" alt=\"Site-specific artwork details: Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring works by Tucker Nichols (left) and Rich Jacobs (right). Nichol's work references an insider joke, held over from when the same site housed Sun Microsystems -- there is no building 13.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140900\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/nichols-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Site-specific artwork details: Facebook’s Artist in Residence Program featuring works by Tucker Nichols (left) and Rich Jacobs (right). Nichol’s work references an insider joke, held over from when the same site housed Sun Microsystems — there is no building 13.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The program is progressive, even as it navigates the parameters of corporate culture, and it seems there is tremendous potential for it to grow into a model for other companies to follow. Bennet says, “The art is not meant to symbolize wealth or suggest prestige. It’s meant to be inspirational and to raise questions about what is possible within this space. The program is designed to be visually disruptive and to challenge people. My hope for this project long term is that we saturate the walls and pour out into public spaces in the surrounding communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Artists are chosen for how well their work embodies a DIY or “hacker ethos,” met with the Bay Area’s hallmark preoccupation with social engagement and models of collaborative production. The vast majority of Menlo Park AIRs have been Bay Area artists — just as those in New York have also been local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140901\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold.jpg\" alt=\"Site-specific installation by Thomas Wold, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140901\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/wold-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Site-specific installation by Thomas Wold, Facebook HQ, Menlo Park, CA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There is a lot value in taking the time to reach out into the art community to find emerging talent,” says Bennett. “It doesn’t remedy the battle between the tech class and the creative class, but it does create a point of entry to better understand each other.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>NOTE: A previous version of this article did not cite Everett Katigbak as a co-founder of Facebook’s Analog Research Lab and AIR program. It has been corrected in the article.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Jeffrey Blankfort Celebrates 80th Birthday by Putting His Historic Bay Area Photos Online",
"headTitle": "Jeffrey Blankfort Celebrates 80th Birthday by Putting His Historic Bay Area Photos Online | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>“Look at this guy wearing white bucks! He’s got white bucks on and the cops are dragging him away by the leg” exclaims \u003ca href=\"http://www.stephenehret.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stephen Ehret\u003c/a>, chuckling to himself as he clicks on a photograph of a 1964 San Francisco sit-in. “That’s a great picture. We need to get that up on the website,” Ehret observes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Blankfort, whose photograph we have been discussing, turns to me and says, “See? This is what happens; there are too many photographs to choose from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140560\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy.jpg\" alt=\"1964 sit-in at a Cadillac dealer in San Francisco; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\" width=\"640\" height=\"501\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy-400x313.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy-300x234.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">1964 sit-in at a Cadillac dealer in San Francisco; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We’re sitting in Ehret’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.icbbuilding.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sausalito art studio\u003c/a> among large-scale paintings of California landscapes. Ehret uploads scanned images to his friend’s online portfolio, which went live for the first time this year in honor of Blankfort’s 80th birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Ehret clicks, Blankfort regales me with stories of his photographic adventures, “You’ve got to tell me when to stop, I could go on forever,” Blankfort laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1960s, “before anybody had long hair,” Blankfort got his start as a photojournalist by documenting San Francisco sit-ins. These \u003ca href=\"http://www.naacp.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NAACP\u003c/a> demonstrations, like the one the buck-clad protester attended at the former Cadillac Agency on Van Ness, were a part of a critical effort to end racist hiring practices in the city, not only at car dealerships but also at hotels and restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are kids that go to school in the city and don’t know anything about the sit-ins. It’s a crime,” says Blankfort. This outrage drives Blankfort to share his photographs with the next generation to fill in the gaps in what he calls “sanitized history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the beginning of his career, Blankfort’s photographs have been shown in galleries and published in periodicals, books and retrospectives around the world. After getting his teaching credential later in life, Blankfort discovered his photographs could take on new significance in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At \u003ca href=\"http://www.wccusd.net/richmond\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richmond High School\u003c/a>, Blankfort’s pictures of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Black Panthers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Berets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Brown Berets\u003c/a> bridged the gap between history and modern struggles for many of his African-American and Latino students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140561\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers.jpg\" alt=\"Brown Berets and Black Panthers in Oakland, 1968; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140561\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brown Berets and Black Panthers in Oakland, 1968; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Blankfort says, “The black students did not want to hear about Martin Luther King, but when I talked to them about the Black Panthers, some of them had family in the Panthers, and suddenly they wanted to listen. And the attitude of the class changed so much when I would bring my photographs in. They didn’t relate to the South, they related to what went on in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past three years, Blankfort has worked with artist Stephen Ehret and educator \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmindsmatter.com/About.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Caitlin Hoffman\u003c/a> to organize his countless photographs into a digital portfolio. The next step is to create more educational presentations that Blankfort can take to local campuses where students can benefit from his historical knowledge and first-hand accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every student should know that until 1964 the Bay Area was just as racist as the South,” says Blankfort. Even today, Blankfort believes the Bay Area still has a long way to go towards attaining true equality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in 1934, Blankfort feels lucky to have grown up in a progressive household during a troubled era. His father worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and produced the first African-American musical, \u003ca href=\"http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/jump-for-joy-duke-ellingtons-celebratory-musical/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>Jump for Joy\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, starring \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Duke Ellington\u003c/a>. He ended up blacklisted and struggled to support his family without compromising his politics. Blankfort says, “My father was a very principled person, as was my mother and I got a lot inspiration from them. They taught me not to keep a set of double books in life. If you have parents like that you know you can’t sell out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Identifying as an independent leftist, Blankfort puts his politics before his career, although they often intersect. Arrested five times — but never convicted — Blankfort was on a first name basis with some local police. Attending protests equipped with a helmet, a gas mask and his camera, Blankfort quickly learned how to pre-focus his camera so he could be ready at a moment’s notice. More than a few of his photographs were used to absolve the wrongfully accused or to provide restitution for the abused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many cases, there would be no historical record of these events if Blankfort had not been there with his camera. “Today everyone has a cell phone camera, but there weren’t as many photographers at the time,” he says. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After traveling to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Blankfort maintains that it is San Francisco in the early ’60s that truly stole his heart — and for keeps. He remembers the exact moment when he realized he had to live in San Francisco: It was while walking to the waterfront from \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph_Hill,_San_Francisco\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Telegraph Hill\u003c/a> when he discovered someone playing bagpipes in their car at two o’clock in the morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140562\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window.jpg\" alt=\"1965 protest in Oakland; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\" width=\"640\" height=\"440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140562\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window-400x275.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window-300x206.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">1965 protest in Oakland; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In fact if it weren’t for San Francisco, Blankfort believes he never could have become a professional photographer. Thanks to what is now known as the \u003ca href=\"http://harveymilkphotocenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harvey Milk Photography Center\u003c/a>, Blankfort was able to learn how to use a darkroom through observation and trial and error. In the early ’60s the scene in Sausalito was the center of his artistic career and the Bay Area remains his home base. He still recognizes familiar faces while grabbing a bite to eat at what used to be one of his favorite coffee houses, and greets another local, Arthur Sheradan, with a fist bump. Blankfort explains, “He was one of the leaders of the 1965 anti-war march from Berkeley to Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s the faces he no longer sees that remind Blankfort that many of his contemporaries are no longer with us. He recently attended the memorial for the influential Bay Area activist, \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Kochiyama\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yuri Kochiyama\u003c/a>, who held the dying \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Malcolm X\u003c/a> in her arms. “I’ve led — I think — a very privileged life. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had all these experiences and met a lot of amazing people along the way — some famous and many not — and been in the right places at the right times,” Blankfort adds, “and I’m still here!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Browse \u003ca href=\"http://jeffblankfortphotography.com/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">30 different galleries of Blankfort’s photography\u003c/a> now available on his website jeffblankfortphotography.com. You can also contact Blankfort from the site to inquire about educational presentations.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Bay Area photographer has spent his life documenting and teaching about the Bay Area's various protest movements and is now sharing his vast archive online.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>“Look at this guy wearing white bucks! He’s got white bucks on and the cops are dragging him away by the leg” exclaims \u003ca href=\"http://www.stephenehret.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stephen Ehret\u003c/a>, chuckling to himself as he clicks on a photograph of a 1964 San Francisco sit-in. “That’s a great picture. We need to get that up on the website,” Ehret observes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeffrey Blankfort, whose photograph we have been discussing, turns to me and says, “See? This is what happens; there are too many photographs to choose from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140560\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy.jpg\" alt=\"1964 sit-in at a Cadillac dealer in San Francisco; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\" width=\"640\" height=\"501\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy-400x313.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-caddy-300x234.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">1964 sit-in at a Cadillac dealer in San Francisco; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We’re sitting in Ehret’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.icbbuilding.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sausalito art studio\u003c/a> among large-scale paintings of California landscapes. Ehret uploads scanned images to his friend’s online portfolio, which went live for the first time this year in honor of Blankfort’s 80th birthday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Ehret clicks, Blankfort regales me with stories of his photographic adventures, “You’ve got to tell me when to stop, I could go on forever,” Blankfort laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1960s, “before anybody had long hair,” Blankfort got his start as a photojournalist by documenting San Francisco sit-ins. These \u003ca href=\"http://www.naacp.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NAACP\u003c/a> demonstrations, like the one the buck-clad protester attended at the former Cadillac Agency on Van Ness, were a part of a critical effort to end racist hiring practices in the city, not only at car dealerships but also at hotels and restaurants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are kids that go to school in the city and don’t know anything about the sit-ins. It’s a crime,” says Blankfort. This outrage drives Blankfort to share his photographs with the next generation to fill in the gaps in what he calls “sanitized history.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the beginning of his career, Blankfort’s photographs have been shown in galleries and published in periodicals, books and retrospectives around the world. After getting his teaching credential later in life, Blankfort discovered his photographs could take on new significance in the classroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At \u003ca href=\"http://www.wccusd.net/richmond\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Richmond High School\u003c/a>, Blankfort’s pictures of \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Black Panthers\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Berets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Brown Berets\u003c/a> bridged the gap between history and modern struggles for many of his African-American and Latino students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140561\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers.jpg\" alt=\"Brown Berets and Black Panthers in Oakland, 1968; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140561\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-panthers-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brown Berets and Black Panthers in Oakland, 1968; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Blankfort says, “The black students did not want to hear about Martin Luther King, but when I talked to them about the Black Panthers, some of them had family in the Panthers, and suddenly they wanted to listen. And the attitude of the class changed so much when I would bring my photographs in. They didn’t relate to the South, they related to what went on in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past three years, Blankfort has worked with artist Stephen Ehret and educator \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmindsmatter.com/About.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Caitlin Hoffman\u003c/a> to organize his countless photographs into a digital portfolio. The next step is to create more educational presentations that Blankfort can take to local campuses where students can benefit from his historical knowledge and first-hand accounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every student should know that until 1964 the Bay Area was just as racist as the South,” says Blankfort. Even today, Blankfort believes the Bay Area still has a long way to go towards attaining true equality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in 1934, Blankfort feels lucky to have grown up in a progressive household during a troubled era. His father worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood and produced the first African-American musical, \u003ca href=\"http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/jump-for-joy-duke-ellingtons-celebratory-musical/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003ci>Jump for Joy\u003c/i>\u003c/a>, starring \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Duke Ellington\u003c/a>. He ended up blacklisted and struggled to support his family without compromising his politics. Blankfort says, “My father was a very principled person, as was my mother and I got a lot inspiration from them. They taught me not to keep a set of double books in life. If you have parents like that you know you can’t sell out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Identifying as an independent leftist, Blankfort puts his politics before his career, although they often intersect. Arrested five times — but never convicted — Blankfort was on a first name basis with some local police. Attending protests equipped with a helmet, a gas mask and his camera, Blankfort quickly learned how to pre-focus his camera so he could be ready at a moment’s notice. More than a few of his photographs were used to absolve the wrongfully accused or to provide restitution for the abused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many cases, there would be no historical record of these events if Blankfort had not been there with his camera. “Today everyone has a cell phone camera, but there weren’t as many photographers at the time,” he says. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After traveling to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Blankfort maintains that it is San Francisco in the early ’60s that truly stole his heart — and for keeps. He remembers the exact moment when he realized he had to live in San Francisco: It was while walking to the waterfront from \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph_Hill,_San_Francisco\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Telegraph Hill\u003c/a> when he discovered someone playing bagpipes in their car at two o’clock in the morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10140562\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window.jpg\" alt=\"1965 protest in Oakland; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\" width=\"640\" height=\"440\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10140562\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window-400x275.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/08/blankfort-window-300x206.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">1965 protest in Oakland; Photo by Jeffrey Blankfort\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In fact if it weren’t for San Francisco, Blankfort believes he never could have become a professional photographer. Thanks to what is now known as the \u003ca href=\"http://harveymilkphotocenter.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harvey Milk Photography Center\u003c/a>, Blankfort was able to learn how to use a darkroom through observation and trial and error. In the early ’60s the scene in Sausalito was the center of his artistic career and the Bay Area remains his home base. He still recognizes familiar faces while grabbing a bite to eat at what used to be one of his favorite coffee houses, and greets another local, Arthur Sheradan, with a fist bump. Blankfort explains, “He was one of the leaders of the 1965 anti-war march from Berkeley to Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s the faces he no longer sees that remind Blankfort that many of his contemporaries are no longer with us. He recently attended the memorial for the influential Bay Area activist, \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Kochiyama\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Yuri Kochiyama\u003c/a>, who held the dying \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Malcolm X\u003c/a> in her arms. “I’ve led — I think — a very privileged life. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had all these experiences and met a lot of amazing people along the way — some famous and many not — and been in the right places at the right times,” Blankfort adds, “and I’m still here!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Browse \u003ca href=\"http://jeffblankfortphotography.com/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">30 different galleries of Blankfort’s photography\u003c/a> now available on his website jeffblankfortphotography.com. You can also contact Blankfort from the site to inquire about educational presentations.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Robin Williams Suicide Disclosure: Too Much? Too Graphic?",
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"headTitle": "Robin Williams Suicide Disclosure: Too Much? Too Graphic? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_144561\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/08/RS11447_134732889-lpr-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-144561\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/08/RS11447_134732889-lpr-1-640x454.jpg\" alt=\"Robin Williams, pictured in 2004. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"454\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robin Williams, pictured in 2004. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How much do you \u003cem>want\u003c/em> to know about how Robin Williams died? How much do you \u003cem>need\u003c/em> to know about it? What \u003cem>should\u003c/em> you know about it? When does releasing the details of a death, even a celebrity’s death, threaten to breach the boundaries of decency, violate privacy and even pose a public health risk?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I ask because of the reaction in the KQED newsroom Tuesday as Lt. Keith Boyd, Marin County’s assistant chief deputy coroner, delivered his description of Williams’ death in a nationally televised press conference. Boyd disclosed that Williams’ body was discovered in a bedroom of his Tiburon home by his personal assistant late Monday morning. Then he offered some explicit details about the condition of Williams’ body when it was found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>… Mr. Williams [was] clothed in a seated position, unresponsive, and with a belt secured around his neck with the other end of the belt wedged between the closed closet door and door frame. His right shoulder area was touching the door with his body was perpendicular to the door and slightly suspended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Williams was cool to the touch with rigor mortis present in all of his extremities and livor mortis positioned appropriately for the position he was located in. …\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>(\u003ca href=\"http://www.iupui.edu/~pathol/autopsy/main/10/10.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rigor mortis\u003c/a> refers to a body’s temporary rigidity after death. \u003ca href=\"http://www.iupui.edu/~pathol/autopsy/main/11/11.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Livor mortis \u003c/a>describes the discoloration that occurs as blood pools in a body after death.)\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">You can thank us, the media pursuing the public’s right to know, for disclosure of the circumstances surrounding the death of Robin Williams.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>After Boyd read his statement, some here in the newsroom (and far beyond, to judge from comments on Twitter) said they were disturbed, even shocked, to hear the graphic description of Wiliams’ postmortem physical condition. The general feeling from the comments I heard was that publicizing the details was a sort of violation. It was an intrusion into a personal tragedy that by right only those closest to the dead should share. And it exposed the awful particulars of the deceased’s last moments to a luridly curious media and public. Some raised the possibility that disclosing details of the death scene might lead to copycat suicides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other side, a few folks said, first, that the information the coroner provided would come out in any case, and second, that the Marin County authorities might be trying to head off the inevitable sensational speculation about the circumstances of Williams’ death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I called Boyd Wednesday to ask what factors guided the decision by the sheriff’s office to include what some have deemed graphic details of Williams’ death. His answer was simple: “We are just following the law.” The law in question is the \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=06001-07000&file=6250-6270\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Public Records Act\u003c/a>, which requires local agencies to disclose most of the records they keep, including coroner’s records (One significant exception is photographs. It takes a court order to get pictures that medical examiners may have taken as part of their postmortem investigations).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I asked Boyd whether the details released Tuesday would be disclosed in any case his office handled. “Mr. Williams’ case is not like any other case,” Boyd said. “I wouldn’t have gotten the PRA requests I’ve gotten for this case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can thank us, the media pursuing the public’s right to know, for all those requests. And you can thank us in advance, too, for the further details on Williams’ death that will emerge as the coroner’s office completes its forensic investigation. Among other things, media organizations have already requested recordings and transcripts of the 911 call that alerted authorities to Williams’ death late Monday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=”jPbOvUtyUMdV34Raq5SbNhU5rNtPZGwP”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For my part, I do indeed believe in the public’s right to know. I think in general we’re a little too ready to protect our audiences from what we judge to be the unpleasant details of the violence in which our culture sometimes seems to be immersed, whether that violence be our wars, violent crime or, yes, suicide. I believe in the value of the public discussion that may follow full and honest disclosure, even disclosure of someone else’s awful personal tragedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how we handle such disclosures can make all the difference. It’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/18/nyregion/pattern-of-death-copycat-suicides-among-youths.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">long been accepted\u003c/a> among suicide researchers and social scientists that copycat suicides are a real thing. There’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007252\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a growing body of evidence\u003c/a> that media reporting on suicides can prompt more suicides. \u003ca href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0055000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One recent study\u003c/a> looked at what happened when media reported on a novel method of suicide in Taiwan in the late 1990s: asphyxiation brought about by lighting a charcoal fire indoors. The findings suggest that intense media attention on such episodes triggered an immediate spike in similar suicide attempts. By 2010, “charcoal burning suicide” had became the second most common method of taking one’s life in Taiwan (after hanging).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to growing attention to news media’s potential role in sparking copycat suicide episodes, suicide researchers, mental health experts and media partners have come up with a set of guidelines on how to treat the subject: \u003ca href=\"http://reportingonsuicide.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The recommendations seek to get media to emphasize the mental health and public health implications of suicide and to remove sensationalism from suicide coverage. For instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Instead of this: Big or sensationalistic headlines, or prominent placement (e.g., “Kurt Cobain Used Shotgun to Commit Suicide”), do this: Inform the audience without sensationalizing the suicide and minimize prominence (e.g., “Kurt Cobain Dead at 27”).\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The specific mention of \u003ca href=\"http://www.biography.com/people/kurt-cobain-9542179#synopsis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kurt Cobain\u003c/a> in the recommendations is kind of interesting. Cobain, the guitarist/singer/songwriter for Seattle’s Nirvana, used a shotgun to kill himself in 1994. David A. Jobes, a prominent suicide researcher, studied Cobain’s death and the popular reaction to it. As \u003ca href=\"http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/951542-129/happens-every-day-the-suicide-of\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recounted by Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross\u003c/a> in the Seattle Weekly earlier this year, the aftermath was different from what Jobes anticipated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>[Jobes] was actually attending an international convention of suicide researchers that week; he heard the news sitting in a bar discussing trends in the field when a breaking news report came across the television in the background. “It was the headline story,” Jobes told me, “and I was with a guy from the CDC, and our jaws just dropped. ‘This is going to be bad,’ we said. We thought there was going to be an epidemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jobes’ extensive study found the opposite occurred. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8897665\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paper he published\u003c/a> speculates several reasons: “The lack of an apparent copycat effect in Seattle may be due to various aspects of the media coverage, the method used in Cobain’s suicide, and the crisis center and community outreach interventions that occurred.” Jobes says another key was outreach by the medical community in the previous year to establish a protocol for suicide coverage, urging media outlets to include suicide resources in their reports. Kurt’s death “was the first time where articles appeared with little boxes that listed hotline numbers, signs of depression, and places to get help,” Jobes said. He says Kurt’s death was something of an “outlier of a celebrity suicide in that it arguably led to reporting that did some good.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>So, that’s the challenge — “reporting that will do some good,” despite the distressing details. One gesture in that direction, as mentioned by one of my colleagues: recognition that suicide is a national public health crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/2011_Final_Mortality_Data_Release.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u003c/a>, 39,518 people took their lives in the United States in 2011, the most recent year for which data are available. That’s a toll 2½ times the number of homicides during the same year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As stark as that number seems — nearly 109 suicides per day, on average, with the nationwide incidence of suicide growing each year — it conceals the actual dimensions of the crisis. The CDC also \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide_datasheet-a.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimate\u003c/a>s that in 2010, there were 25 attempted suicides for every one that succeeded — 1 million attempts all across the United States in a single year. Two million people said they had made plans to kill themselves. Eight million said they had experienced suicidal thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s natural to look for a message in Robin Williams’ suicide. I’m not sure there is one beyond the staggering realization that even those who look like they have everything can experience such blinding despair that they are driven to take their own lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The message in the larger context: Realize the dimensions of the crisis that’s taking so many lives, and pay attention and be ready to help those in your life when they tell you they’re in crisis.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_144561\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/08/RS11447_134732889-lpr-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-144561\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/08/RS11447_134732889-lpr-1-640x454.jpg\" alt=\"Robin Williams, pictured in 2004. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"454\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Robin Williams, pictured in 2004. (Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>How much do you \u003cem>want\u003c/em> to know about how Robin Williams died? How much do you \u003cem>need\u003c/em> to know about it? What \u003cem>should\u003c/em> you know about it? When does releasing the details of a death, even a celebrity’s death, threaten to breach the boundaries of decency, violate privacy and even pose a public health risk?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I ask because of the reaction in the KQED newsroom Tuesday as Lt. Keith Boyd, Marin County’s assistant chief deputy coroner, delivered his description of Williams’ death in a nationally televised press conference. Boyd disclosed that Williams’ body was discovered in a bedroom of his Tiburon home by his personal assistant late Monday morning. Then he offered some explicit details about the condition of Williams’ body when it was found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>… Mr. Williams [was] clothed in a seated position, unresponsive, and with a belt secured around his neck with the other end of the belt wedged between the closed closet door and door frame. His right shoulder area was touching the door with his body was perpendicular to the door and slightly suspended.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Williams was cool to the touch with rigor mortis present in all of his extremities and livor mortis positioned appropriately for the position he was located in. …\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>(\u003ca href=\"http://www.iupui.edu/~pathol/autopsy/main/10/10.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rigor mortis\u003c/a> refers to a body’s temporary rigidity after death. \u003ca href=\"http://www.iupui.edu/~pathol/autopsy/main/11/11.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Livor mortis \u003c/a>describes the discoloration that occurs as blood pools in a body after death.)\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">You can thank us, the media pursuing the public’s right to know, for disclosure of the circumstances surrounding the death of Robin Williams.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>After Boyd read his statement, some here in the newsroom (and far beyond, to judge from comments on Twitter) said they were disturbed, even shocked, to hear the graphic description of Wiliams’ postmortem physical condition. The general feeling from the comments I heard was that publicizing the details was a sort of violation. It was an intrusion into a personal tragedy that by right only those closest to the dead should share. And it exposed the awful particulars of the deceased’s last moments to a luridly curious media and public. Some raised the possibility that disclosing details of the death scene might lead to copycat suicides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other side, a few folks said, first, that the information the coroner provided would come out in any case, and second, that the Marin County authorities might be trying to head off the inevitable sensational speculation about the circumstances of Williams’ death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I called Boyd Wednesday to ask what factors guided the decision by the sheriff’s office to include what some have deemed graphic details of Williams’ death. His answer was simple: “We are just following the law.” The law in question is the \u003ca href=\"http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=gov&group=06001-07000&file=6250-6270\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">California Public Records Act\u003c/a>, which requires local agencies to disclose most of the records they keep, including coroner’s records (One significant exception is photographs. It takes a court order to get pictures that medical examiners may have taken as part of their postmortem investigations).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I asked Boyd whether the details released Tuesday would be disclosed in any case his office handled. “Mr. Williams’ case is not like any other case,” Boyd said. “I wouldn’t have gotten the PRA requests I’ve gotten for this case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can thank us, the media pursuing the public’s right to know, for all those requests. And you can thank us in advance, too, for the further details on Williams’ death that will emerge as the coroner’s office completes its forensic investigation. Among other things, media organizations have already requested recordings and transcripts of the 911 call that alerted authorities to Williams’ death late Monday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For my part, I do indeed believe in the public’s right to know. I think in general we’re a little too ready to protect our audiences from what we judge to be the unpleasant details of the violence in which our culture sometimes seems to be immersed, whether that violence be our wars, violent crime or, yes, suicide. I believe in the value of the public discussion that may follow full and honest disclosure, even disclosure of someone else’s awful personal tragedy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But how we handle such disclosures can make all the difference. It’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/18/nyregion/pattern-of-death-copycat-suicides-among-youths.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">long been accepted\u003c/a> among suicide researchers and social scientists that copycat suicides are a real thing. There’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007252\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a growing body of evidence\u003c/a> that media reporting on suicides can prompt more suicides. \u003ca href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0055000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">One recent study\u003c/a> looked at what happened when media reported on a novel method of suicide in Taiwan in the late 1990s: asphyxiation brought about by lighting a charcoal fire indoors. The findings suggest that intense media attention on such episodes triggered an immediate spike in similar suicide attempts. By 2010, “charcoal burning suicide” had became the second most common method of taking one’s life in Taiwan (after hanging).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to growing attention to news media’s potential role in sparking copycat suicide episodes, suicide researchers, mental health experts and media partners have come up with a set of guidelines on how to treat the subject: \u003ca href=\"http://reportingonsuicide.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The recommendations seek to get media to emphasize the mental health and public health implications of suicide and to remove sensationalism from suicide coverage. For instance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Instead of this: Big or sensationalistic headlines, or prominent placement (e.g., “Kurt Cobain Used Shotgun to Commit Suicide”), do this: Inform the audience without sensationalizing the suicide and minimize prominence (e.g., “Kurt Cobain Dead at 27”).\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The specific mention of \u003ca href=\"http://www.biography.com/people/kurt-cobain-9542179#synopsis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kurt Cobain\u003c/a> in the recommendations is kind of interesting. Cobain, the guitarist/singer/songwriter for Seattle’s Nirvana, used a shotgun to kill himself in 1994. David A. Jobes, a prominent suicide researcher, studied Cobain’s death and the popular reaction to it. As \u003ca href=\"http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/951542-129/happens-every-day-the-suicide-of\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recounted by Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross\u003c/a> in the Seattle Weekly earlier this year, the aftermath was different from what Jobes anticipated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>[Jobes] was actually attending an international convention of suicide researchers that week; he heard the news sitting in a bar discussing trends in the field when a breaking news report came across the television in the background. “It was the headline story,” Jobes told me, “and I was with a guy from the CDC, and our jaws just dropped. ‘This is going to be bad,’ we said. We thought there was going to be an epidemic.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jobes’ extensive study found the opposite occurred. The \u003ca href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8897665\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paper he published\u003c/a> speculates several reasons: “The lack of an apparent copycat effect in Seattle may be due to various aspects of the media coverage, the method used in Cobain’s suicide, and the crisis center and community outreach interventions that occurred.” Jobes says another key was outreach by the medical community in the previous year to establish a protocol for suicide coverage, urging media outlets to include suicide resources in their reports. Kurt’s death “was the first time where articles appeared with little boxes that listed hotline numbers, signs of depression, and places to get help,” Jobes said. He says Kurt’s death was something of an “outlier of a celebrity suicide in that it arguably led to reporting that did some good.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>So, that’s the challenge — “reporting that will do some good,” despite the distressing details. One gesture in that direction, as mentioned by one of my colleagues: recognition that suicide is a national public health crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/2011_Final_Mortality_Data_Release.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u003c/a>, 39,518 people took their lives in the United States in 2011, the most recent year for which data are available. That’s a toll 2½ times the number of homicides during the same year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As stark as that number seems — nearly 109 suicides per day, on average, with the nationwide incidence of suicide growing each year — it conceals the actual dimensions of the crisis. The CDC also \u003ca href=\"http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide_datasheet-a.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">estimate\u003c/a>s that in 2010, there were 25 attempted suicides for every one that succeeded — 1 million attempts all across the United States in a single year. Two million people said they had made plans to kill themselves. Eight million said they had experienced suicidal thoughts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s natural to look for a message in Robin Williams’ suicide. I’m not sure there is one beyond the staggering realization that even those who look like they have everything can experience such blinding despair that they are driven to take their own lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The message in the larger context: Realize the dimensions of the crisis that’s taking so many lives, and pay attention and be ready to help those in your life when they tell you they’re in crisis.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>I didn’t expect Robin Williams’ death to hit me as hard as it did. When it was reported this afternoon that the actor and comedian had been found dead at 63 in his Tiburon home, a suspected suicide, the loss felt profoundly personal in a way that was strange given that he was someone I’d never met. It had been years since I’d followed Williams’ career closely. I was dimly aware that he’d been starring in a television show with Sarah Michelle Gellar, \u003cem>The Crazy Ones\u003c/em>, which CBS canceled after one season, but I hadn’t seen it. He’d been popping up in movies regularly in recent years, but the last things I’d actually seen him in were his 2002 one-two punch of dramatic roles in \u003cem>One Hour Photo\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Insomnia\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when I was a kid, Robin Williams was my hero, easily one of the greatest influences of my childhood. I never wanted to be a comedian myself (at least not that I can recall), but I was a big fan of comedy — and of his comedy in particular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like most kids of my generation, I first knew him as the sitcom space alien Mork from Ork, not just on \u003cem>Mork and Mindy\u003c/em> but the strange guest appearance on \u003cem>Happy Days\u003c/em> that introduced the character. When I was in fourth grade circa 1980, going to public school in Oakland, I happened across an interview with him in one of those gaudy fanzines for kids, \u003cem>Popcorn\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Bananas\u003c/em>, in which he revealed that other kids used to pick on him at school until he learned to make them laugh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, as it happened, I was getting beat up a lot at the time, so this made a huge impression on me. I tried to be funny. Honestly, I did. I’d talk to my milk, dance with mops, introduce people to my invisible friend, dangle from third-story railings. But grade schoolers lack a fine appreciation for the absurd. After that I wasn’t getting picked on just because I was shy and awkward, but because I was a weirdo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However dodgy my experience with taking his advice turned out to be, that didn’t sour me on Robin Williams. Far from it. When the movie \u003cem>Popeye\u003c/em> came out, I stuck around in the Grand Lake Theatre and watched it three times in a row (partly because the clowns I loved from the Pickle Family Circus were in it — Bill Irwin, Geoff Hoyle and Larry Pisoni). I practically wore out my LPs of his standup-comedy albums \u003cem>Reality…What a Concept\u003c/em> (1979) and \u003cem>Throbbing Python of Love\u003c/em> (1983), listening to them over and over until I’d memorized them (not intentionally, just inevitably). In fifth grade my friends and I would sit around at recess reciting his routines to each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back when Whoopi Goldberg was still living in Berkeley in the early 1980s — before her big break in \u003cem>The Color Purple\u003c/em> — I remember going to a big party at her house and finding out that Robin Williams had showed up right after my dad and I had left. So my sister got to hang out with my hero and I didn’t; and boy did she enjoy telling me that. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I grew older, I gradually stopped seeing movies just because Robin Williams was in them, but I continued to get a warm feeling every time I saw him. I didn’t care much for the sentimental \u003cem>Patch Adams\u003c/em>-type roles that were a growing part of his oeuvre, but I was always a fan of his knack for over-the-top extemporaneous comedy and his chilling ability to go dark on occasion when cast against type in dramas and thrillers. And even though I never once ran into him in all the decades that we both lived in the Bay Area, I always loved hearing that Williams had dropped in at this or that local venue to do a surprise set or just to support a friend. And though it would have been great, I never once kicked myself for missing any of those appearances. I just liked knowing he was around. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s what hits me so hard — and what I suspect will be hitting a lot of us in the coming days: the sudden shock of knowing that none of us will be running into Robin Williams anymore.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>I didn’t expect Robin Williams’ death to hit me as hard as it did. When it was reported this afternoon that the actor and comedian had been found dead at 63 in his Tiburon home, a suspected suicide, the loss felt profoundly personal in a way that was strange given that he was someone I’d never met. It had been years since I’d followed Williams’ career closely. I was dimly aware that he’d been starring in a television show with Sarah Michelle Gellar, \u003cem>The Crazy Ones\u003c/em>, which CBS canceled after one season, but I hadn’t seen it. He’d been popping up in movies regularly in recent years, but the last things I’d actually seen him in were his 2002 one-two punch of dramatic roles in \u003cem>One Hour Photo\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Insomnia\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when I was a kid, Robin Williams was my hero, easily one of the greatest influences of my childhood. I never wanted to be a comedian myself (at least not that I can recall), but I was a big fan of comedy — and of his comedy in particular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like most kids of my generation, I first knew him as the sitcom space alien Mork from Ork, not just on \u003cem>Mork and Mindy\u003c/em> but the strange guest appearance on \u003cem>Happy Days\u003c/em> that introduced the character. When I was in fourth grade circa 1980, going to public school in Oakland, I happened across an interview with him in one of those gaudy fanzines for kids, \u003cem>Popcorn\u003c/em> or \u003cem>Bananas\u003c/em>, in which he revealed that other kids used to pick on him at school until he learned to make them laugh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, as it happened, I was getting beat up a lot at the time, so this made a huge impression on me. I tried to be funny. Honestly, I did. I’d talk to my milk, dance with mops, introduce people to my invisible friend, dangle from third-story railings. But grade schoolers lack a fine appreciation for the absurd. After that I wasn’t getting picked on just because I was shy and awkward, but because I was a weirdo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However dodgy my experience with taking his advice turned out to be, that didn’t sour me on Robin Williams. Far from it. When the movie \u003cem>Popeye\u003c/em> came out, I stuck around in the Grand Lake Theatre and watched it three times in a row (partly because the clowns I loved from the Pickle Family Circus were in it — Bill Irwin, Geoff Hoyle and Larry Pisoni). I practically wore out my LPs of his standup-comedy albums \u003cem>Reality…What a Concept\u003c/em> (1979) and \u003cem>Throbbing Python of Love\u003c/em> (1983), listening to them over and over until I’d memorized them (not intentionally, just inevitably). In fifth grade my friends and I would sit around at recess reciting his routines to each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back when Whoopi Goldberg was still living in Berkeley in the early 1980s — before her big break in \u003cem>The Color Purple\u003c/em> — I remember going to a big party at her house and finding out that Robin Williams had showed up right after my dad and I had left. So my sister got to hang out with my hero and I didn’t; and boy did she enjoy telling me that. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As I grew older, I gradually stopped seeing movies just because Robin Williams was in them, but I continued to get a warm feeling every time I saw him. I didn’t care much for the sentimental \u003cem>Patch Adams\u003c/em>-type roles that were a growing part of his oeuvre, but I was always a fan of his knack for over-the-top extemporaneous comedy and his chilling ability to go dark on occasion when cast against type in dramas and thrillers. And even though I never once ran into him in all the decades that we both lived in the Bay Area, I always loved hearing that Williams had dropped in at this or that local venue to do a surprise set or just to support a friend. And though it would have been great, I never once kicked myself for missing any of those appearances. I just liked knowing he was around. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And that’s what hits me so hard — and what I suspect will be hitting a lot of us in the coming days: the sudden shock of knowing that none of us will be running into Robin Williams anymore.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Robin Williams: ‘A Tortured Soul, But No One Was Kinder’",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note:\u003c/strong> \u003cem>An earlier version of this post misidentified Bob Ayres. We regret the error. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends and fellow performers of Robin Williams, the comedian and actor celebrated for his manic intelligence and high-speed inventiveness, are expressing shock at his passing earlier Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just one example:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote lang=\"en\">\n\u003cp>I could not be more stunned \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/11/robin-williams-bob-harris-other-cafe\" target=\"_self\" class=\"rssmi_more\" rel=\"noopener\"> …read more\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Source: \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/11/robin-williams-bob-harris-other-cafe\" target=\"_self\" title=\"Robin Williams: ‘A Tortured Soul, But No One Was Kinder’\" rel=\"noopener\">News Fix Arts\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "\u003cp>\u003ca>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Editor's note:\u003c/strong> \u003cem>An earlier version of this post misidentified Bob Ayres. We regret the error. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends and fellow performers of Robin Williams, the comedian and actor celebrated for his manic intelligence and high-speed inventiveness, are expressing shock at his passing earlier Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just one example:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote lang=\"en\">\n\u003cp>I could not be more stunned \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/11/robin-williams-bob-harris-other-cafe\" target=\"_self\" class=\"rssmi_more\" rel=\"noopener\"> ...read more\u003c/a>",
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"description": "\nEditor's note: An earlier version of this post misidentified Bob Ayres. We regret the error. \nFriends and fellow performers of Robin Williams, the comedian and actor celebrated for his manic intelligence and high-speed inventiveness, are expressing shock at his passing earlier Monday.\nJust one example:\n\nI could not be more stunned ...read more",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Editor’s note:\u003c/strong> \u003cem>An earlier version of this post misidentified Bob Ayres. We regret the error. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friends and fellow performers of Robin Williams, the comedian and actor celebrated for his manic intelligence and high-speed inventiveness, are expressing shock at his passing earlier Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just one example:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote lang=\"en\">\n\u003cp>I could not be more stunned \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/11/robin-williams-bob-harris-other-cafe\" target=\"_self\" class=\"rssmi_more\" rel=\"noopener\"> …read more\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Source: \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/11/robin-williams-bob-harris-other-cafe\" target=\"_self\" title=\"Robin Williams: ‘A Tortured Soul, But No One Was Kinder’\" rel=\"noopener\">News Fix Arts\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"disqusTitle": "Robin Williams Suffered From Parkinson's Disease, Wife Says",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_144548\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 561px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/08/robinwilliams.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-144548\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/08/robinwilliams.png\" alt=\"An Instagram photo comedian and actor Robin Williams posted on his last birthday, July 21. The caption: 'Happy Birthday to me! A visit from one of my favorite leading ladies, Crystal.'\" width=\"561\" height=\"564\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Instagram photo that comedian and actor Robin Williams posted on his last birthday, July 21. The caption: 'Happy Birthday to me! A visit from one of my favorite leading ladies, Crystal.'\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 12 p.m. Thursday: \u003c/strong>Robin Williams was in the early stages of Parkinson's disease, his wife said in a statement Thursday, and he had not relapsed into drinking alcohol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Robin's sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson's disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly,\" Susan Schneider said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parkinson's disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that often is first noticed through trembling hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 11:30 a.m. Tuesday: \u003c/strong> Marin County sheriff's officials say that actor and comedian Robin Williams, found dead at his Tiburon home at midday Monday, hanged himself. Here are the relevant details \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/More-details-to-be-released-in-Robin-Williams-5683229.php\" target=\"_blank\">by way of the San Francisco Chronicle, which reports that Williams' body was discovered by his personal assistant\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The assistant became concerned about 11:45 a.m. Monday after Williams, 63, failed to answer knocks at his bedroom door, said Marin County sheriff's Lt. Keith Boyd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The assistant entered the room and found Williams \"unresponsive with a belt secured around his neck, with the other end of the belt wedged between the clothes closet door and the door frame,\" Boyd said.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The complete statement from the sheriff's office \u003ca href=\"#williamscoroner\">is embedded below\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9:25 a.m. Tuesday:\u003c/strong> Marin County sheriff's officials are planning an 11 a.m. press conference on the death of comedian and actor Robin Williams. We don't know yet what information they'll release on the circumstances surrounding what they've described as an apparent suicide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meantime, an outpouring of shock and grief continues from family, friends, fellow performers and a long roster of public officials, including President Obama. \u003ca href=\"http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/08/11/president-obama-passing-robin-williams-he-was-one-kind\" target=\"_blank\">In a statement issued by the White House\u003c/a>, the president said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien -- but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most -- from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee issued his own statement, praising Williams' generosity in giving to a wide range of causes. In addition to participating in benefits for organizations that included San Francisco's Project Open Hand and Neil Young's Bridge Foundation, Williams started his own foundation to donate money to Doctors Without Borders, the Livestrong Foundation and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Barbara Boxer, like Williams a resident of Marin County, also issued a statement Tuesday:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"I send the heartfelt condolences of my entire family to Robin Williams' family as our entire country mourns the loss of this remarkable genius who made us smile, laugh uncontrollably or cry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"His ability to connect with everyone was a rare gift indeed. We will always remember Robin and we must also rededicate ourselves to helping each other through the dark times.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Among fellow performers reacting to Williams' death was comedian Chevy Chase -- who said they shared more than just their profession in common:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"Robin and I were great friends, suffering from the same little-known disease: depression. I never could have expected this ending to his life and to ours with him. God bless him and God bless us all for his LIFE! I cannot believe this. I am overwhelmed with grief. What a wonderful man/boy and what a tremendous talent in the most important art of any time — comedy! I loved him,\" actor and comedian Chevy Chase said in a statement.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post:\u003c/strong> Marin County authorities say actor and comedian Robin Williams has died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"vHmmqd7Qe4Uwmu5ta9RXeTlVGJdRitTi\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Marin County Sheriff's Office reported that emergency responders found Williams in his Tiburon home after getting a call just before noon Monday that he had been found unconscious and not breathing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheriff's coroner's division said Williams apparently took his own life, though it cautioned that its investigation is ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Williams' wife and publicist confirmed his death.\u003ca href=\"http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724\" target=\"_blank\"> From the Hollywood Reporter\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Williams' publicist Mara Buxbaum told The Hollywood Reporter: \"Robin Williams passed away this morning. He has been battling severe depression of late. This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His wife, Susan Schneider, said: \"This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken. On behalf of Robin's family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief. As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin's death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Williams was in the news last month when gossip news site \u003ca href=\"http://www.tmz.com/2014/07/01/robin-williams-actor-rehab-photo-rehab-drugs-alcohol/\" target=\"_blank\">TMZ reported \u003c/a>that he was at \u003ca href=\"http://www.hazelden.org/\" target=\"blank\">Hazelden, an addiction treatment center\u003c/a> in Minnesota, to maintain his sobriety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams' representative told reporters at the time, \"After working back-to-back projects, Robin is simply taking the opportunity to fine-tune and focus on his continued commitment, of which he remains extremely proud.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams was open about his issues with alcohol and cocaine addiction. As recounted in the Los Angeles Times recently:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Williams ... previously spent time on a Hazelden campus in Oregon back in 2006. He later explained that drinking had gradually become a problem again after 20 years of sobriety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You're standing at a precipice and you look down, there's a voice and it's a little quiet voice that goes, 'Jump,' \" the \"Mrs. Doubtfire\" star told ABC News in October of that year. \"The same voice that goes, 'Just one.' … And the idea of just one for someone who has no tolerance for it, that's not the possibility.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Williams' latest movie, \"Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,\" is in post-production and due for release in December. Here's how the Hollywood Reporter sums up Williams' career in \u003ca href=\"http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724\" target=\"_blank\">its obituary\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>A dazzling comic force whose career extended from stand-up to a major acting career, Williams' comedic talents were so quick and brilliant that he often intimidated other comedians. His improv skills were meteoric and stupefying: Williams could wing off the cuff better than any of his peers. He burst through the stand-up world into television, captivating audiences with his portrayal of the endearing extraterrestrial Mork in the '70s series \u003cem>Mork and Mindy\u003c/em>. He first limned the Mork role as a guest star on \u003cem>Happy Days\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He fractured movies audiences with his comedic and endearing performance in \u003cem>Good Morning, Vietnam\u003c/em> (1987). He delighted audiences in the box-office hit \u003cem>The Birdcage\u003c/em> (1996), playing a gay club owner who tries to convince his conservative, future in-laws of his heterosexual mainstream values. He tapped into a fey side and feminine side, as well: He delighted with his slapstick values as a hausfrau in \u003cem>Mrs. Doubtfire \u003c/em>(1993).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His rapid-fire delivery bespoke a warp-speed, associative intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mystery is in the motion: What miracle of the synapses got him from point A to point Z? At once a satirist, a comedian and a superb actor, this one-man repertory company dashes from mask to mask, voice to voice, like a man possessed by comic demons,” David Ansen wrote in Newsweek in 1986.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Williams returned to network television last year in a CBS sitcom called \u003cem>The Crazy Ones\u003c/em>. It was canceled after a single season. He said in \u003ca href=\"http://parade.condenast.com/154817/dotsonrader/robin-williams-on-returning-to-tv-getting-sober-and-downsizing-in-his-60s/\" target=\"_blank\">an interview with Parade magazine last year\u003c/a> that he was motivated to do the series in part because of financial challenges:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“The idea of having a steady job is appealing. I have two [other] choices: go on the road doing stand-up, or do small, independent movies working almost for scale [minimum union pay]. The movies are good, but a lot of times they don’t even have distribution. There are bills to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way. I’m selling the ranch up in Napa. I just can’t afford it anymore.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Asked whether he \"lost all his money in his two divorces, Williams said: “Well, not all. Lost enough. Divorce is expensive. I used to joke they were going to call it ‘all the money,’ but they changed it to ‘alimony.’ It’s ripping your heart out through your wallet. Are things good with my exes? Yes. But do I need that lifestyle? No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's the complete statement on Williams' death released Monday from the Marin Sheriff's Office:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>On August 11, 2014, at approximately 11:55 am, Marin County Communications received a 9-1-1 telephone call reporting a male adult had been located unconscious and not breathing inside his residence in unincorporated Tiburon, CA. The Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Tiburon Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Protection District were dispatched to the incident with emergency personnel arriving on scene at 12:00 pm. The male subject, pronounced deceased at 12:02 pm has been identified as Robin McLaurin Williams, a 63 year old resident of unincorporated Tiburon, CA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An investigation into the cause, manner, and circumstances of the death is currently underway by the Investigations and Coroner Divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. Preliminary information developed during the investigation indicates Mr. Williams was last seen alive at his residence, where he resides with his wife, at approximately 10 p.m. on Aug. 10, 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Williams was located this morning shortly before the 9-1-1 call was placed to Marin County Communications. At this time, the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia, but a comprehensive investigation must be completed before a final determination is made. A forensic examination is currently scheduled for August 12, 2014 with subsequent toxicology testing to be conducted.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"williamscoroner\">\u003c/a>\u003ciframe id=\"doc_68553\" class=\"scribd_iframe_embed\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/236634017/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_144548\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 561px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/08/robinwilliams.png\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-144548\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/08/robinwilliams.png\" alt=\"An Instagram photo comedian and actor Robin Williams posted on his last birthday, July 21. The caption: 'Happy Birthday to me! A visit from one of my favorite leading ladies, Crystal.'\" width=\"561\" height=\"564\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Instagram photo that comedian and actor Robin Williams posted on his last birthday, July 21. The caption: 'Happy Birthday to me! A visit from one of my favorite leading ladies, Crystal.'\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 12 p.m. Thursday: \u003c/strong>Robin Williams was in the early stages of Parkinson's disease, his wife said in a statement Thursday, and he had not relapsed into drinking alcohol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Robin's sobriety was intact and he was brave as he struggled with his own battles of depression, anxiety as well as early stages of Parkinson's disease, which he was not yet ready to share publicly,\" Susan Schneider said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parkinson's disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that often is first noticed through trembling hands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 11:30 a.m. Tuesday: \u003c/strong> Marin County sheriff's officials say that actor and comedian Robin Williams, found dead at his Tiburon home at midday Monday, hanged himself. Here are the relevant details \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/More-details-to-be-released-in-Robin-Williams-5683229.php\" target=\"_blank\">by way of the San Francisco Chronicle, which reports that Williams' body was discovered by his personal assistant\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>The assistant became concerned about 11:45 a.m. Monday after Williams, 63, failed to answer knocks at his bedroom door, said Marin County sheriff's Lt. Keith Boyd.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The assistant entered the room and found Williams \"unresponsive with a belt secured around his neck, with the other end of the belt wedged between the clothes closet door and the door frame,\" Boyd said.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The complete statement from the sheriff's office \u003ca href=\"#williamscoroner\">is embedded below\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, 9:25 a.m. Tuesday:\u003c/strong> Marin County sheriff's officials are planning an 11 a.m. press conference on the death of comedian and actor Robin Williams. We don't know yet what information they'll release on the circumstances surrounding what they've described as an apparent suicide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meantime, an outpouring of shock and grief continues from family, friends, fellow performers and a long roster of public officials, including President Obama. \u003ca href=\"http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/08/11/president-obama-passing-robin-williams-he-was-one-kind\" target=\"_blank\">In a statement issued by the White House\u003c/a>, the president said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Robin Williams was an airman, a doctor, a genie, a nanny, a president, a professor, a bangarang Peter Pan, and everything in between. But he was one of a kind. He arrived in our lives as an alien -- but he ended up touching every element of the human spirit. He made us laugh. He made us cry. He gave his immeasurable talent freely and generously to those who needed it most -- from our troops stationed abroad to the marginalized on our own streets. The Obama family offers our condolences to Robin’s family, his friends, and everyone who found their voice and their verse thanks to Robin Williams.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee issued his own statement, praising Williams' generosity in giving to a wide range of causes. In addition to participating in benefits for organizations that included San Francisco's Project Open Hand and Neil Young's Bridge Foundation, Williams started his own foundation to donate money to Doctors Without Borders, the Livestrong Foundation and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sen. Barbara Boxer, like Williams a resident of Marin County, also issued a statement Tuesday:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"I send the heartfelt condolences of my entire family to Robin Williams' family as our entire country mourns the loss of this remarkable genius who made us smile, laugh uncontrollably or cry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"His ability to connect with everyone was a rare gift indeed. We will always remember Robin and we must also rededicate ourselves to helping each other through the dark times.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Among fellow performers reacting to Williams' death was comedian Chevy Chase -- who said they shared more than just their profession in common:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>\"Robin and I were great friends, suffering from the same little-known disease: depression. I never could have expected this ending to his life and to ours with him. God bless him and God bless us all for his LIFE! I cannot believe this. I am overwhelmed with grief. What a wonderful man/boy and what a tremendous talent in the most important art of any time — comedy! I loved him,\" actor and comedian Chevy Chase said in a statement.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post:\u003c/strong> Marin County authorities say actor and comedian Robin Williams has died.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Marin County Sheriff's Office reported that emergency responders found Williams in his Tiburon home after getting a call just before noon Monday that he had been found unconscious and not breathing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sheriff's coroner's division said Williams apparently took his own life, though it cautioned that its investigation is ongoing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Both Williams' wife and publicist confirmed his death.\u003ca href=\"http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724\" target=\"_blank\"> From the Hollywood Reporter\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Williams' publicist Mara Buxbaum told The Hollywood Reporter: \"Robin Williams passed away this morning. He has been battling severe depression of late. This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His wife, Susan Schneider, said: \"This morning, I lost my husband and my best friend, while the world lost one of its most beloved artists and beautiful human beings. I am utterly heartbroken. On behalf of Robin's family, we are asking for privacy during our time of profound grief. As he is remembered, it is our hope the focus will not be on Robin's death, but on the countless moments of joy and laughter he gave to millions.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Williams was in the news last month when gossip news site \u003ca href=\"http://www.tmz.com/2014/07/01/robin-williams-actor-rehab-photo-rehab-drugs-alcohol/\" target=\"_blank\">TMZ reported \u003c/a>that he was at \u003ca href=\"http://www.hazelden.org/\" target=\"blank\">Hazelden, an addiction treatment center\u003c/a> in Minnesota, to maintain his sobriety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams' representative told reporters at the time, \"After working back-to-back projects, Robin is simply taking the opportunity to fine-tune and focus on his continued commitment, of which he remains extremely proud.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams was open about his issues with alcohol and cocaine addiction. As recounted in the Los Angeles Times recently:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Williams ... previously spent time on a Hazelden campus in Oregon back in 2006. He later explained that drinking had gradually become a problem again after 20 years of sobriety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You're standing at a precipice and you look down, there's a voice and it's a little quiet voice that goes, 'Jump,' \" the \"Mrs. Doubtfire\" star told ABC News in October of that year. \"The same voice that goes, 'Just one.' … And the idea of just one for someone who has no tolerance for it, that's not the possibility.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Williams' latest movie, \"Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb,\" is in post-production and due for release in December. Here's how the Hollywood Reporter sums up Williams' career in \u003ca href=\"http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724\" target=\"_blank\">its obituary\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>A dazzling comic force whose career extended from stand-up to a major acting career, Williams' comedic talents were so quick and brilliant that he often intimidated other comedians. His improv skills were meteoric and stupefying: Williams could wing off the cuff better than any of his peers. He burst through the stand-up world into television, captivating audiences with his portrayal of the endearing extraterrestrial Mork in the '70s series \u003cem>Mork and Mindy\u003c/em>. He first limned the Mork role as a guest star on \u003cem>Happy Days\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He fractured movies audiences with his comedic and endearing performance in \u003cem>Good Morning, Vietnam\u003c/em> (1987). He delighted audiences in the box-office hit \u003cem>The Birdcage\u003c/em> (1996), playing a gay club owner who tries to convince his conservative, future in-laws of his heterosexual mainstream values. He tapped into a fey side and feminine side, as well: He delighted with his slapstick values as a hausfrau in \u003cem>Mrs. Doubtfire \u003c/em>(1993).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His rapid-fire delivery bespoke a warp-speed, associative intelligence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The mystery is in the motion: What miracle of the synapses got him from point A to point Z? At once a satirist, a comedian and a superb actor, this one-man repertory company dashes from mask to mask, voice to voice, like a man possessed by comic demons,” David Ansen wrote in Newsweek in 1986.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Williams returned to network television last year in a CBS sitcom called \u003cem>The Crazy Ones\u003c/em>. It was canceled after a single season. He said in \u003ca href=\"http://parade.condenast.com/154817/dotsonrader/robin-williams-on-returning-to-tv-getting-sober-and-downsizing-in-his-60s/\" target=\"_blank\">an interview with Parade magazine last year\u003c/a> that he was motivated to do the series in part because of financial challenges:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“The idea of having a steady job is appealing. I have two [other] choices: go on the road doing stand-up, or do small, independent movies working almost for scale [minimum union pay]. The movies are good, but a lot of times they don’t even have distribution. There are bills to pay. My life has downsized, in a good way. I’m selling the ranch up in Napa. I just can’t afford it anymore.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>Asked whether he \"lost all his money in his two divorces, Williams said: “Well, not all. Lost enough. Divorce is expensive. I used to joke they were going to call it ‘all the money,’ but they changed it to ‘alimony.’ It’s ripping your heart out through your wallet. Are things good with my exes? Yes. But do I need that lifestyle? No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here's the complete statement on Williams' death released Monday from the Marin Sheriff's Office:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>On August 11, 2014, at approximately 11:55 am, Marin County Communications received a 9-1-1 telephone call reporting a male adult had been located unconscious and not breathing inside his residence in unincorporated Tiburon, CA. The Sheriff’s Office, as well as the Tiburon Fire Department and Southern Marin Fire Protection District were dispatched to the incident with emergency personnel arriving on scene at 12:00 pm. The male subject, pronounced deceased at 12:02 pm has been identified as Robin McLaurin Williams, a 63 year old resident of unincorporated Tiburon, CA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An investigation into the cause, manner, and circumstances of the death is currently underway by the Investigations and Coroner Divisions of the Sheriff’s Office. Preliminary information developed during the investigation indicates Mr. Williams was last seen alive at his residence, where he resides with his wife, at approximately 10 p.m. on Aug. 10, 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mr. Williams was located this morning shortly before the 9-1-1 call was placed to Marin County Communications. At this time, the Sheriff’s Office Coroner Division suspects the death to be a suicide due to asphyxia, but a comprehensive investigation must be completed before a final determination is made. A forensic examination is currently scheduled for August 12, 2014 with subsequent toxicology testing to be conducted.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Robin Williams, Groundbreaking Comedian and Actor, Dead at 63",
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"content": "\u003cp>Legendary comic and actor Robin Williams was found dead Monday morning in his Tiburon home in an apparent suicide, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s department. He was 63.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the cause of death was still pending as of Monday afternoon, but the Marin County Coroner’s office was reported saying a preliminary investigation found Williams had died of suicide by asphyxiation. An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday morning, according to the Marin Independent Journal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Robin Williams passed away this morning. He has been battling severe depression of late,” said Williams’ publicist Mara Buxbaum to \u003ca href=\"http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724\"> \u003ci>The Hollywood Reporter.\u003c/i>\u003c/a> “This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams, a stand-up comedian who got his start in the Bay Area, moved on to acting soon after his star was on the rise and became a massive box office draw with movies such as \u003ci>Awakenings,\u003c/i> \u003ci>The Fisher King\u003c/i> and \u003ci>The Dead Poets Society.\u003c/i> He won an Oscar in 1997 for his performance in the movie \u003ci>Good Will Hunting.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul,” tweeted Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For an example of his comedic genius, here is a clip of him doing stand up in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13I5y1VKos \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>For more on Williams’ death and the resulting investigation, follow the story on \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/11/robin-williams-iconic-comedian-and-actor-found-dead/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NewsFix.\u003c/a>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Legendary comic and actor Robin Williams was found dead Monday morning in his Tiburon home in an apparent suicide, according to the Marin County Sheriff’s department. He was 63.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the cause of death was still pending as of Monday afternoon, but the Marin County Coroner’s office was reported saying a preliminary investigation found Williams had died of suicide by asphyxiation. An autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday morning, according to the Marin Independent Journal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Robin Williams passed away this morning. He has been battling severe depression of late,” said Williams’ publicist Mara Buxbaum to \u003ca href=\"http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robin-williams-dies-suspected-suicide-724724\"> \u003ci>The Hollywood Reporter.\u003c/i>\u003c/a> “This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams, a stand-up comedian who got his start in the Bay Area, moved on to acting soon after his star was on the rise and became a massive box office draw with movies such as \u003ci>Awakenings,\u003c/i> \u003ci>The Fisher King\u003c/i> and \u003ci>The Dead Poets Society.\u003c/i> He won an Oscar in 1997 for his performance in the movie \u003ci>Good Will Hunting.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I could not be more stunned by the loss of Robin Williams, mensch, great talent, acting partner, genuine soul,” tweeted Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For an example of his comedic genius, here is a clip of him doing stand up in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13I5y1VKos \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>For more on Williams’ death and the resulting investigation, follow the story on \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/08/11/robin-williams-iconic-comedian-and-actor-found-dead/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NewsFix.\u003c/a>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Can San Francisco's Video Stores Be Saved?",
"headTitle": "Can San Francisco’s Video Stores Be Saved? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>You have to keep in mind just how few options there were back then. I’m talking pre-‘80s, before the VCR became the first in a long line of accessories to turn your TV into the culture’s central nervous system of escapism. You could go to retro houses or watch truncated old movies on television (interrupted by mood-shattering commercials). But those were essentially passive choices; you might find \u003cem>Citizen Kane\u003c/em>, or it might be \u003cem>Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy\u003c/em>. You watched for a variety of reasons, one of them being “because it’s there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That is why I remember my first visit to a video store as a sort of cornucopian dream, a lavish spectacle that satisfied a deeply rooted desire. Dorothy’s first glimpse of Oz, exploding with color after a life of rural black and white. Or that famous \u003ci>Twilight Zone\u003c/i>, when the suicidal bookworm and lone survivor of a nuclear war otherwise known as Burgess Meredith \u003ca href=\"http://youtu.be/UAxARJyaTEA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">happens upon the intact contents\u003c/a> of the New York Public Library.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://youtu.be/x6D8PAGelN8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What’ll it be today? \u003cem>The Seventh Seal\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Bicycle Thieves\u003c/em>, \u003cem>8 1/2\u003c/em>? Or maybe something in a Renoir? And here’s \u003cem>Force of Evil\u003c/em>, that overlooked noir you’ve been dying to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kid, meet candy store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fast forward (or drag your mental scroll bar) to the present, when the video store remains pleasingly but inefficiently concrete, a physical holdout in an age when websites and servers have made instant gratification of your visual narrative needs de rigueur. Once the stuff that dreams are made of, the video store is now the most endangered species in the present media ecosystem, a relic mostly fit for frequenting by grandparents and technophobes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or so the numbers say. Reading a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1370\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent analysis of the industry\u003c/a> by business forecasting firm IBIS World is like looking over the last section of one of those obituaries news organizations prepare when someone is about to kick. The industry is in “the declining stage of its life cycle,” the report says. In 2005, nearly 23,000 video stores did business in the U.S. Today it’s 9,000, on the way to a predicted 4,000 in 2019. “Revenue contraction shows no signs of abating over 2014,” it continues, with sales anticipated to fall (another) 17 percent. Nine years ago, the industry employed close to 158,000 people. Today it’s 47,000, with about two-thirds of those jobs predicted to be gone with the wind five years from now.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Local Stores Hanging On\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>But it ain’t over till it’s over, and it ain’t over quite yet. A handful of video stores remain in San Francisco, though to talk to their owners is to very much wonder for how long. Their predicament has started to gain attention, especially with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/movies/article.jsp?essid=134827\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">near-closure of Le Video\u003c/a>, long a haven for cinephiles. Even AP \u003ca href=\"http://www.usatoday.com/videos/money/business/2014/06/13/10410219/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">visited the city this summer\u003c/a> to check in on the survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a status report on four of San Francisco’s most enduring video stores: Faye’s, Lost Weekend, Video Wave and Le Video.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10139804\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes.jpg\" alt=\"Faye's famous sandwich board\" width=\"640\" height=\"857\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10139804\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes-400x535.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Faye’s famous sandwich board\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye’s Video, 3614 18TH Street between Guerrero and Dolores\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officially called Faye’s Video & Espresso Bar, it’s the latter part of that combo keeping the store afloat. That wasn’t always the case, says co-owner Matthew Troy. Six or seven years ago, movie rentals made up two-thirds of the business; now they account for just a quarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Troy says the store has seen a steady decline in rentals since a peak in 2008, estimating the business is down 60 percent since then. In the past year, a sharp decrease has sent video revenue to new lows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traditionally, the store saw about 100 new accounts created per month. But in a short period of time last summer, that number dropped. “It went to 100 to 90 to 60 and 50. Now we have literally half the amount of people coming in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why such a precipitous drop? Troy thinks the change in people’s retail habits finally hit critical mass. “Netflix has been around for years, so something else is going on,” he says. “People live in areas without video stores, so when they move to San Francisco, their habit is already in place. We get people here all the time that say this is so ‘old school.’ I tell people we’re not selling Rubik’s Cubes, we don’t have Go-Gos posters up. It’s interesting how people turn on a place they would love to go to, and they’re just like ‘nope moving on to streaming on my phone or computer.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That technology has come of age, he realizes. “Four to five years ago streaming wasn’t as good; now you’ve got moms and dads streaming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Troy says the store could still make it on coffee sales if his video rental business collapsed completely. He and his partner have been talking about rearranging the interior so movies take up less space. “I’ve done the math to see if it was worth still having movies for the hours (put in),” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no surprise that Faye’s rent went up 50 percent recently. The store is located on one of the blocks that make the Valencia Corridor area so appealing to affluent newcomers, with Dolores Park on one end of the street, Tartine Bakery on the other, and Deflina restaurant and Bi-Rite Market in between. The store currently helps defray costs by subletting to popup stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Troy says he doesn’t like the thought of ending the movie business, though he and his partner have had those discussions. On some days “it’s like there are tumbleweeds coming in,” he says. “But there are still 500-600 people who rent from the store. I’m not ready to tell them to go online. You get those times they’re so excited to come to a video store. Like a six-year-old, with \u003ci>Little Mermaid\u003c/i> or something. They can actually hold the box and there’s a book. It’s a tangible place where people can discuss and look at it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But we can’t be in business to just have these stories once a month. We have to be smart about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10139987\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave.jpg\" alt=\"Video Wave's building in Noe Valley gets a facelift; Photo by Colin Hutton\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10139987\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Video Wave’s building in Noe Valley gets a facelift; Photo by Colin Hutton\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Video Wave of Noe Valley, 1431 Castro Street, between 25th & Jersey\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re barely scraping by,” says Gwen Sanderson, a co-owner of Video Wave for 10 years. A moment later she amends that: “We aren’t really.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ominously, the store’s 10-year lease is up soon, and Video Wave doesn’t have the space to sublet to another retailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been able to stay here because our landlord kept the rent affordable,” she says. “But we’re likely going to see a huge increase. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re putting out a letter to customers now letting them know what the situation is in case they want to get involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanderson rattles off the names of local video stores that have closed over the years: Dr. Video, Naked Eye, Top World Video. In 2005, she says, two competitors coexisted within five blocks of her alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She thinks the industry has long needed a new business model. “The model was this is the only place you can get movies outside the theater. As soon as that changed, it needed to be tweaked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She would like the city to get involved in helping video stores survive, perhaps housing the entirety of the stores’ collections in one central location, then rotating titles through different neighborhoods in moviemobiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, that’s a pipe dream. But Sanderson thinks there’s a compelling cultural interest in preserving the 30 years worth of titles that the remaining video stores have collected. She says stores have many titles that simply aren’t available online, which would have to be purchased at high prices in order to be viewed, should they become un-rentable. She even wrote a press release in an attempt to start a conversation about the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The residents of San Francisco have access to every movie available for home viewing…. mainly held at locally owned video stores,” it reads. “If the last stores close in San Francisco, we will all lose access to a large percentage of what we currently have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10139805\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend.jpg\" alt=\"Lost Weekend video in the heart of SF's Mission district\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10139805\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lost Weekend video in the heart of SF’s Mission district\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lost Weekend Video, 1034 Valencia Street, between 21st and Hill\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The store’s steady decline in business started around 2008 amid the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession, says co-owner David Hawkins. Business has fallen roughly 60 percent since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lost Weekend sits among the upscale eateries and boutiques that have so transformed the Valencia Corridor. But high rent is not the problem, Hawkins says. The problem is people just aren’t renting anymore and they’re not renting in increasing numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been down 10-15 percent each year, and we were calculating that into our math of figuring out what to do,” he says. “And then it just plummeted even further. We figured there’s got to be a bottom at some point. But there hasn’t been.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Faye’s Matthew Troy, Hawkins sees the habits of the new demographic pouring into the neighborhood as the main problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I used to know 90 percent of the people who walk by. Now it’s down to 5-10 percent. Everyone comes home on their buses from Google, gets on their email and computer, then goes to bed. There are fewer people leaving their houses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawkins says that five or six years ago, he tried to organize retailers around the catastrophe he was sure was on its way. “I went around with a little notebook to every record store, video store, and bookstore in the city, trying to get a p.r. campaign. Everyone was intrigued by it, but it was like herding cats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The store has tweaked its business over the years in response. Its 25,000 titles can now be rented for five days instead of two. And a space featuring live comedy has helped keep it solvent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A month ago the store posted an SOS on its Facebook page, saying it was facing an “immediate crisis.” Nothing’s changed since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s to the point where we don’t have any cushion,” Hawkins says. “If anything goes wrong, we don’t have the resources. If something breaks and it’s a 40-buck replacement because it’s out of print, we have to really wrestle with if we can afford it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He makes an appeal for customers to patronize their friendly neighborhood retailers, whatever they may be. The issue is something much larger than the imminent disappearance of an obsolete media model, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people hear us complaining about our business going under, they’re like, ‘so what? It’s just a video store.’ But when you start piecing it together with record stores that have been around 70 years, and bookstores for hundreds of years, then you’re starting to get through what the problem really is. Everyone buys their shoes from Zappos, for instance. You used to be able to open this little shoe store in whatever town and make a living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawkins does not like Netflix. Video stores used to employ 150,000 people in the country, he notes; Netflix employs 2,000. He sees the choice of where you get your TV and movies as a political one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If Walmart plunked a store down in the middle of San Francisco, most people would go out of their way not to shop there. But for some reason, people don’t have that mindset about Amazon, Netflix and Apple. They’re bigger than Walmart now, humongous corporations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10139988\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo.jpg\" alt=\"In the middle of Le Video's remodel. Same location, just one floor up.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10139988\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the middle of Le Video’s remodel. Same location, just one floor up.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Le Video, 1231 9th Avenue, between Irving and Lincoln\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there’s a shred of hope for brick and mortar movie rental stores, you can find it in the public response to the news that Le Video was about to turn out the lights — and not just to watch a movie. Practically a cultural institution because of its insanely copious collection, Le Video was long a must-visit for any cinephile looking for rarer titles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in March, the store’s owner, Catherine Tchen, wrote on Facebook that barring a “miracle,” she would shut down at the end of April 2014. At the time, I talked to the store’s buyer, longtime employee John Taylor, who said Le Video had been losing money for years, and Tchen could no longer afford to house its money-losing 80-90,000 titles on the large ground floor in lieu of renting it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the plan was to move the collection to a smaller upstairs area. The store launched an \u003ca href=\"//www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-le-video-a-sf-film-institution%E2%80%9D\">Indiegogo campaign\u003c/a> to finance the transition, setting a goal of $35,000. It hit that mark in just 13 days, blasting past to a final total of $60,000, including $10,000 from \u003cem>Lemony Snicket\u003c/em> author Daniel Handler. Green Apple Books, a store with a similarly passionate customer base, is moving into Le Video’s former ground floor space. Green Apple Books opened on Aug. 1, while Le Video was set to open on Friday, Aug. 8, barring any additional delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Le Video is now feeling a bit flush, posting a Facebook message during the remodeling about “new Internet and new phones… that will actually work when you call us…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor says the money also went to hiring staff, building shelves, ordering materials for construction, and runs to the dump. Not to mention “little plastic sleeves that cost a shocking amount of money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But don’t expect the same browsing experience, once so pleasing to those who made special trips just to walk among the grotto-like arrangement of overflowing shelves. The upstairs space is about a third the size, Taylor says. All the plastic cases that housed the DVDs and Blu-rays have been discarded; you will have to conduct your treasure hunts in the kind of \u003ca href=\"//www.facebook.com/LeVideoSF/photos/a.447362580764.241311.27426240764/10152280730945765/?type=1&theater%E2%80%9D\">bins you see in record stores\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move will also not solve the underlying problem of a business that is half or less of what it used to be, with the bottom nowhere in sight. “We did notice that at the beginning of this year, despite (business) already being pretty low, it took another dip again,” Taylor says. To address that, the store is building a web browsing tool for its huge inventory, to be followed by an online rental function. Finally, Le Video hopes to offer rent-by-mail, a model that Netflix built its empire on but is now abandoning in favor of streaming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Owner Catherine Tchen is quick to add the caveat that, though Le Video is seeking non-profit status, the store must be able to cover its own operating expenses. Le Video’s future success relies on loyal customers coming in more than once or twice a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which provokes the question: Up against such technological, cash-flush gargantuans, are even the most forward-thinking, finely curated, and passionately complete neighborhood repositories of our cinematic heritage doomed to fight the last war in the rapidly changing media delivery game?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year I saw the author Rebecca Solnit at a fundraiser for Adobe Books, now a refugee from the same swath of hyper-gentrified neighborhood in which Lost Weekend and Faye’s reside. She counseled: “Start stocking up on memories of what used to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next month, we’ll look into how the new business model of Netflix, slayer of so many video stores, could possibly make them relevant again.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You have to keep in mind just how few options there were back then. I’m talking pre-‘80s, before the VCR became the first in a long line of accessories to turn your TV into the culture’s central nervous system of escapism. You could go to retro houses or watch truncated old movies on television (interrupted by mood-shattering commercials). But those were essentially passive choices; you might find \u003cem>Citizen Kane\u003c/em>, or it might be \u003cem>Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy\u003c/em>. You watched for a variety of reasons, one of them being “because it’s there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That is why I remember my first visit to a video store as a sort of cornucopian dream, a lavish spectacle that satisfied a deeply rooted desire. Dorothy’s first glimpse of Oz, exploding with color after a life of rural black and white. Or that famous \u003ci>Twilight Zone\u003c/i>, when the suicidal bookworm and lone survivor of a nuclear war otherwise known as Burgess Meredith \u003ca href=\"http://youtu.be/UAxARJyaTEA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">happens upon the intact contents\u003c/a> of the New York Public Library.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/x6D8PAGelN8'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/x6D8PAGelN8'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>What’ll it be today? \u003cem>The Seventh Seal\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Bicycle Thieves\u003c/em>, \u003cem>8 1/2\u003c/em>? Or maybe something in a Renoir? And here’s \u003cem>Force of Evil\u003c/em>, that overlooked noir you’ve been dying to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kid, meet candy store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fast forward (or drag your mental scroll bar) to the present, when the video store remains pleasingly but inefficiently concrete, a physical holdout in an age when websites and servers have made instant gratification of your visual narrative needs de rigueur. Once the stuff that dreams are made of, the video store is now the most endangered species in the present media ecosystem, a relic mostly fit for frequenting by grandparents and technophobes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or so the numbers say. Reading a \u003ca href=\"http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1370\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent analysis of the industry\u003c/a> by business forecasting firm IBIS World is like looking over the last section of one of those obituaries news organizations prepare when someone is about to kick. The industry is in “the declining stage of its life cycle,” the report says. In 2005, nearly 23,000 video stores did business in the U.S. Today it’s 9,000, on the way to a predicted 4,000 in 2019. “Revenue contraction shows no signs of abating over 2014,” it continues, with sales anticipated to fall (another) 17 percent. Nine years ago, the industry employed close to 158,000 people. Today it’s 47,000, with about two-thirds of those jobs predicted to be gone with the wind five years from now.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch4>Local Stores Hanging On\u003c/h4>\n\u003cp>But it ain’t over till it’s over, and it ain’t over quite yet. A handful of video stores remain in San Francisco, though to talk to their owners is to very much wonder for how long. Their predicament has started to gain attention, especially with the \u003ca href=\"http://www.kqed.org/arts/movies/article.jsp?essid=134827\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">near-closure of Le Video\u003c/a>, long a haven for cinephiles. Even AP \u003ca href=\"http://www.usatoday.com/videos/money/business/2014/06/13/10410219/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">visited the city this summer\u003c/a> to check in on the survivors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a status report on four of San Francisco’s most enduring video stores: Faye’s, Lost Weekend, Video Wave and Le Video.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10139804\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes.jpg\" alt=\"Faye's famous sandwich board\" width=\"640\" height=\"857\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10139804\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes-400x535.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/fayes-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Faye’s famous sandwich board\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Faye’s Video, 3614 18TH Street between Guerrero and Dolores\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officially called Faye’s Video & Espresso Bar, it’s the latter part of that combo keeping the store afloat. That wasn’t always the case, says co-owner Matthew Troy. Six or seven years ago, movie rentals made up two-thirds of the business; now they account for just a quarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Troy says the store has seen a steady decline in rentals since a peak in 2008, estimating the business is down 60 percent since then. In the past year, a sharp decrease has sent video revenue to new lows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Traditionally, the store saw about 100 new accounts created per month. But in a short period of time last summer, that number dropped. “It went to 100 to 90 to 60 and 50. Now we have literally half the amount of people coming in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why such a precipitous drop? Troy thinks the change in people’s retail habits finally hit critical mass. “Netflix has been around for years, so something else is going on,” he says. “People live in areas without video stores, so when they move to San Francisco, their habit is already in place. We get people here all the time that say this is so ‘old school.’ I tell people we’re not selling Rubik’s Cubes, we don’t have Go-Gos posters up. It’s interesting how people turn on a place they would love to go to, and they’re just like ‘nope moving on to streaming on my phone or computer.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That technology has come of age, he realizes. “Four to five years ago streaming wasn’t as good; now you’ve got moms and dads streaming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Troy says the store could still make it on coffee sales if his video rental business collapsed completely. He and his partner have been talking about rearranging the interior so movies take up less space. “I’ve done the math to see if it was worth still having movies for the hours (put in),” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no surprise that Faye’s rent went up 50 percent recently. The store is located on one of the blocks that make the Valencia Corridor area so appealing to affluent newcomers, with Dolores Park on one end of the street, Tartine Bakery on the other, and Deflina restaurant and Bi-Rite Market in between. The store currently helps defray costs by subletting to popup stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Troy says he doesn’t like the thought of ending the movie business, though he and his partner have had those discussions. On some days “it’s like there are tumbleweeds coming in,” he says. “But there are still 500-600 people who rent from the store. I’m not ready to tell them to go online. You get those times they’re so excited to come to a video store. Like a six-year-old, with \u003ci>Little Mermaid\u003c/i> or something. They can actually hold the box and there’s a book. It’s a tangible place where people can discuss and look at it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But we can’t be in business to just have these stories once a month. We have to be smart about it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10139987\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave.jpg\" alt=\"Video Wave's building in Noe Valley gets a facelift; Photo by Colin Hutton\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10139987\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/videowave-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Video Wave’s building in Noe Valley gets a facelift; Photo by Colin Hutton\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Video Wave of Noe Valley, 1431 Castro Street, between 25th & Jersey\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re barely scraping by,” says Gwen Sanderson, a co-owner of Video Wave for 10 years. A moment later she amends that: “We aren’t really.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ominously, the store’s 10-year lease is up soon, and Video Wave doesn’t have the space to sublet to another retailer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been able to stay here because our landlord kept the rent affordable,” she says. “But we’re likely going to see a huge increase. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We’re putting out a letter to customers now letting them know what the situation is in case they want to get involved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sanderson rattles off the names of local video stores that have closed over the years: Dr. Video, Naked Eye, Top World Video. In 2005, she says, two competitors coexisted within five blocks of her alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She thinks the industry has long needed a new business model. “The model was this is the only place you can get movies outside the theater. As soon as that changed, it needed to be tweaked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She would like the city to get involved in helping video stores survive, perhaps housing the entirety of the stores’ collections in one central location, then rotating titles through different neighborhoods in moviemobiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For now, that’s a pipe dream. But Sanderson thinks there’s a compelling cultural interest in preserving the 30 years worth of titles that the remaining video stores have collected. She says stores have many titles that simply aren’t available online, which would have to be purchased at high prices in order to be viewed, should they become un-rentable. She even wrote a press release in an attempt to start a conversation about the issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The residents of San Francisco have access to every movie available for home viewing…. mainly held at locally owned video stores,” it reads. “If the last stores close in San Francisco, we will all lose access to a large percentage of what we currently have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10139805\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend.jpg\" alt=\"Lost Weekend video in the heart of SF's Mission district\" width=\"640\" height=\"428\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10139805\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend-400x267.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/lostweekend-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lost Weekend video in the heart of SF’s Mission district\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lost Weekend Video, 1034 Valencia Street, between 21st and Hill\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The store’s steady decline in business started around 2008 amid the financial crisis and subsequent Great Recession, says co-owner David Hawkins. Business has fallen roughly 60 percent since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lost Weekend sits among the upscale eateries and boutiques that have so transformed the Valencia Corridor. But high rent is not the problem, Hawkins says. The problem is people just aren’t renting anymore and they’re not renting in increasing numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s been down 10-15 percent each year, and we were calculating that into our math of figuring out what to do,” he says. “And then it just plummeted even further. We figured there’s got to be a bottom at some point. But there hasn’t been.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Faye’s Matthew Troy, Hawkins sees the habits of the new demographic pouring into the neighborhood as the main problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I used to know 90 percent of the people who walk by. Now it’s down to 5-10 percent. Everyone comes home on their buses from Google, gets on their email and computer, then goes to bed. There are fewer people leaving their houses.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawkins says that five or six years ago, he tried to organize retailers around the catastrophe he was sure was on its way. “I went around with a little notebook to every record store, video store, and bookstore in the city, trying to get a p.r. campaign. Everyone was intrigued by it, but it was like herding cats.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The store has tweaked its business over the years in response. Its 25,000 titles can now be rented for five days instead of two. And a space featuring live comedy has helped keep it solvent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A month ago the store posted an SOS on its Facebook page, saying it was facing an “immediate crisis.” Nothing’s changed since then.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s to the point where we don’t have any cushion,” Hawkins says. “If anything goes wrong, we don’t have the resources. If something breaks and it’s a 40-buck replacement because it’s out of print, we have to really wrestle with if we can afford it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He makes an appeal for customers to patronize their friendly neighborhood retailers, whatever they may be. The issue is something much larger than the imminent disappearance of an obsolete media model, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When people hear us complaining about our business going under, they’re like, ‘so what? It’s just a video store.’ But when you start piecing it together with record stores that have been around 70 years, and bookstores for hundreds of years, then you’re starting to get through what the problem really is. Everyone buys their shoes from Zappos, for instance. You used to be able to open this little shoe store in whatever town and make a living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawkins does not like Netflix. Video stores used to employ 150,000 people in the country, he notes; Netflix employs 2,000. He sees the choice of where you get your TV and movies as a political one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If Walmart plunked a store down in the middle of San Francisco, most people would go out of their way not to shop there. But for some reason, people don’t have that mindset about Amazon, Netflix and Apple. They’re bigger than Walmart now, humongous corporations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10139988\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo.jpg\" alt=\"In the middle of Le Video's remodel. Same location, just one floor up.\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10139988\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/08/levideo-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the middle of Le Video’s remodel. Same location, just one floor up.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Le Video, 1231 9th Avenue, between Irving and Lincoln\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If there’s a shred of hope for brick and mortar movie rental stores, you can find it in the public response to the news that Le Video was about to turn out the lights — and not just to watch a movie. Practically a cultural institution because of its insanely copious collection, Le Video was long a must-visit for any cinephile looking for rarer titles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in March, the store’s owner, Catherine Tchen, wrote on Facebook that barring a “miracle,” she would shut down at the end of April 2014. At the time, I talked to the store’s buyer, longtime employee John Taylor, who said Le Video had been losing money for years, and Tchen could no longer afford to house its money-losing 80-90,000 titles on the large ground floor in lieu of renting it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So the plan was to move the collection to a smaller upstairs area. The store launched an \u003ca href=\"//www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-le-video-a-sf-film-institution%E2%80%9D\">Indiegogo campaign\u003c/a> to finance the transition, setting a goal of $35,000. It hit that mark in just 13 days, blasting past to a final total of $60,000, including $10,000 from \u003cem>Lemony Snicket\u003c/em> author Daniel Handler. Green Apple Books, a store with a similarly passionate customer base, is moving into Le Video’s former ground floor space. Green Apple Books opened on Aug. 1, while Le Video was set to open on Friday, Aug. 8, barring any additional delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Le Video is now feeling a bit flush, posting a Facebook message during the remodeling about “new Internet and new phones… that will actually work when you call us…”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taylor says the money also went to hiring staff, building shelves, ordering materials for construction, and runs to the dump. Not to mention “little plastic sleeves that cost a shocking amount of money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But don’t expect the same browsing experience, once so pleasing to those who made special trips just to walk among the grotto-like arrangement of overflowing shelves. The upstairs space is about a third the size, Taylor says. All the plastic cases that housed the DVDs and Blu-rays have been discarded; you will have to conduct your treasure hunts in the kind of \u003ca href=\"//www.facebook.com/LeVideoSF/photos/a.447362580764.241311.27426240764/10152280730945765/?type=1&theater%E2%80%9D\">bins you see in record stores\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move will also not solve the underlying problem of a business that is half or less of what it used to be, with the bottom nowhere in sight. “We did notice that at the beginning of this year, despite (business) already being pretty low, it took another dip again,” Taylor says. To address that, the store is building a web browsing tool for its huge inventory, to be followed by an online rental function. Finally, Le Video hopes to offer rent-by-mail, a model that Netflix built its empire on but is now abandoning in favor of streaming.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Owner Catherine Tchen is quick to add the caveat that, though Le Video is seeking non-profit status, the store must be able to cover its own operating expenses. Le Video’s future success relies on loyal customers coming in more than once or twice a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which provokes the question: Up against such technological, cash-flush gargantuans, are even the most forward-thinking, finely curated, and passionately complete neighborhood repositories of our cinematic heritage doomed to fight the last war in the rapidly changing media delivery game?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year I saw the author Rebecca Solnit at a fundraiser for Adobe Books, now a refugee from the same swath of hyper-gentrified neighborhood in which Lost Weekend and Faye’s reside. She counseled: “Start stocking up on memories of what used to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"order": 16
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},
"science-friday": {
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