San Francisco twins - Page 4

LukeA · #46 05-08-2007, 11:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I just had friends that lived in those areas - that is why I know them.

For the burbs, I'll take St. Francis Wood. A friend had a HUGE house there on bedrock. She and her friend used to take me to the St. Francis Yhact club for luch, which was like 8 milk punches

But, yea, my friend's apt. in the Marina was destroyed in the 87 quake. That is when she moved to Sausalito. Her old house was immediately to the left of the old substation (now a house) on top of the hill above the road when you are coming into Sausalito.

I just love that area of the world.

My hay day there was like 1987 - 1996 -- so many good times and such a youthful time for me.

The only good thing about Marina is the Final Final on Baker & Lombard.

And Sausalito is no Tiburon

LukeA · #47 05-08-2007, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard B

You like all the pretentious areas. I hate the Marina, not to mention they are the first to go in a serious earthquake.

I prefer Hayes Valley, Noe Valley, Dolores Park area, Cole Valley, Mission, Telegraph Hill (although colder).

I will add the Presido as well, but it's a bitch to get downtown from there. I did enjoy a year living at Baker Beach. My view was spectacular and being lulled to sleep at night from the waves was amazing. I also fried on X one night there with a friend. One of the best nights of my life. We layed in trees on the beach and watched the night sky.

Where near the Presidio? Presidio Heights? Seacliff?

See, this is why I LOVE Inner Richmond/Laurel Heights/Outer Haight- close enough to the Presidio, and all the breathtaking views of the west side, but excellent downtown access with the Geary, California, Fulton, and McAllister MUNI routes.

Speaking of the 38 bus, I had a "twins" experience one day last October while on my way out to Ocean Beach. They got off around Presidio, by the Best Buy. *shudder*

strandinthewind · #48 05-09-2007, 01:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LukeA

The only good thing about Marina is the Final Final on Baker & Lombard.

And Sausalito is no Tiburon

T is fab ---- but - the No Name is not there

Richard B · #49 05-09-2007, 10:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BTFLCHLD

It's the RickyPT and RichardB Show!

LOL. Your sass turns me on.

irishgrl · #50 05-10-2007, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by catinthedark

ok. so now that i've googled spectators and figured out what they are... i'm still going with the bells on the toes.

(by the way, i used to live in berkeley, and love love love san francisco, too)

however. the twins? still creepy.

not as creepy as the naked guy in Berkeley.....

I always liked the Human Jukebox. so sad how he ended up...

BlackWidow · #51 05-10-2007, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishgrl

not as creepy as the naked guy in Berkeley.....

I always liked the Human Jukebox. so sad how he ended up...

The Human Jukebox???

Rickypt · #52 05-10-2007, 09:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by irishgrl

not as creepy as the naked guy in Berkeley.....
.

May he rest in peace and I never found him to be creepy either.

BlackWidow · #53 05-10-2007, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickypt

May he rest in peace and I never found him to be creepy either.

guess you had to be there....

irishgrl · #54 05-10-2007, 08:20 PM

Just for you 'Dre:

and an article after his death:

Quote:

In the days before schizophrenia stole his wits, Grimes Poznikov played music on "The Mike Douglas Show" and was lauded by journalist Charles Kuralt as one of the most popular entertainment attractions in San Francisco. It was the 1970s and early 1980s -- and Mr. Poznikov, "The Automatic Human Jukebox," sat at Fisherman's Wharf in a refrigerator box playing songs for cash.

He was a very good musician by all accounts, a skill he always attributed to growing up in a house where everyone played an instrument and his mother was a locally famous singer.

But that was in the old days.

By the late 1980s, Mr. Poznikov's mental illness made him so erratic he could no longer perform, and he began sleeping in the streets. And that's how he died, from alcohol poisoning, on Thursday. A passer-by discovered him lying on a sidewalk near the corner of Caesar Chavez Street and Highway 101. He was 59.

"He was brilliant, but always missing a few cards in his deck," said his sister, Jenny Predpelski of Overland Park, Kan. "From the time he could talk, he could play any instrument from piano to trumpet and drums, and he was a very bright student.

"But somewhere along the way, he decided he wanted to be a hippie. His music career was good with the jukebox act, but after he started to go downhill about 15 years ago, we just sort of lost him."

Mr. Poznikov was born to Bernie and Albert Poznik and raised in Neodesha, Kan. His father was a lawyer and his mother ran an art studio and acted in local theaters, gaining area renown for acting and singing, particularly as the lead in "Mame," said Predpelski.

"It was a great life, but Grimes just didn't want to be in a small town," she said. "Once he left here, he never came back."

One of Mr. Poznikov's first unconventional acts came when he was drafted after high school and showed up for his draft board hearing stoned on acid, relatives recalled. He was rejected for service, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree at Cornell College in Iowa in 1969, majoring in psychology.

Mr. Poznikov taught elementary school in Chicago for three years, but soon became restless as he got more attracted to the counterculture, his sister recalled.

Mr. Poznikov already had been arrested at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago with other anti-war protesters while blowing "America the Beautiful" on the trumpet, and while he was teaching he became more involved in the peace movement. In 1972, he set up a trailer at the Republican National Convention in Miami, calling it the "American Lobotomy Machine." He and other peace demonstrators sat in it for hours, pretending to be brainwashed into being "good Americans."

That same year, he abandoned the teaching career, tacked the "ov" of his Russian ancestors onto the end of his name, and moved out to San Francisco to try his hand at professional music. Being a self-styled hippie, the street scene drew him first.

"He'd got the idea for the Automatic Human Jukebox act in Amsterdam, watching street performers," said his sister. "So he decided to try that out West."

It was a simple, but brilliantly successful act.

Mr. Poznikov would sit at Fisherman's Wharf near the cable car turnaround in a painted refrigerator box. On one side of the box were dozens of little tabs cut into the cardboard, each with a song title written on it. On the other side of the box was a slot for dropping in money, and on the front of the box was a lid operated by a pulley from the inside.

Tourists would push in a song tab, drop in money, and the lid flipped open to reveal Mr. Poznikov in a fedora hat and tie. He'd reel off the song on trumpet, kazoo or any of a half-dozen other instruments he kept in the box.

The quality of the song depended on how much cash was dropped in the slot. A reporter selected "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" one hot summer day in 1976, slid in a dime, and got one quick kazoo blast. The reporter then tossed in $2, and when the performance lid flipped open Mr. Poznikov blew a soulful, pitch-perfect version of the same song on trumpet, fetching cheers from the crowd of 40 people gathered around.

The act was so popular he was booked on national TV shows and featured in news articles and travel guides all over the country. At least two Web sites are devoted to the memory of his act.

"He is a true musical genius, and like all creative giants, he always lived a few notes ahead of the masses," Bill Self wrote on one of the sites, saying he was a childhood friend of Mr. Poznikov's in Kansas and kept in occasional touch through the years.

In 1987, after being ticketed by the police for playing his trumpet 13 decibels above the legal sound limit, Mr. Poznikov quit his act, moved out of his rented apartment and began sleeping in the streets. He stayed with friends from time to time -- particularly his off-and-on girlfriend, Susan "Harmony" Tanner -- but the freedom of the outdoors always pulled him back to the sidewalk, he told a reporter last December.

"I never got a chance to do the stuff I wanted to for him because he made himself hard to find," said Niels Tangherlini, a San Francisco paramedic captain who counsels homeless people in the street. "It amazes me how people who are so sick manage to elude us. It was very sad for him to go that way."

Mr. Poznikov is survived by his sister; Tanner; and two brothers, Greg Poznik of Madison, Wis., and Sam Silver of Aurora, Colo.

No memorials are planned.

irishgrl · #55 05-10-2007, 08:23 PM

and just to be fair:

The Naked Guy

Quote:

The Naked Guy, whose au naturel jaunts through Berkeley spurred a nudity revolt in the early 1990s and earned him national fame, died in a San Jose jail cell, apparently of suicide.

While many chuckled at the exploits of Andrew Martinez, friends and family of the 33-year-old talked Saturday about a troubled man who struggled for years with mental illness.

"He was a person with tremendous gifts and charisma who could have been a great asset to our society, but instead I feel like society -- me included -- failed him," said Martinez's best friend, Bryan Schwartz, a civil rights lawyer in Washington, D.C. "It's such a waste."

After his days as the Naked Guy, Martinez spent the next decade bouncing among halfway houses, psychiatric institutions, occasional homelessness and jail, but never getting comprehensive treatment, his family said. His life ended in an apparent suicide Thursday morning.

"It was an endless cycle of trying to get answers but never getting any," said his mother, who requested that her name not be used. "It was endless, endless, endless."

Doctors were never able to give Martinez an exact diagnosis, and he struggled for years with his medication. Some periods he was his familiar, lucid self, but other times his mind "seemed to be commanded by an alien spirit," Schwartz said.

But before his mental illness wreaked havoc on his and his family's lives, Martinez was a bright, charismatic, sweet-natured youth with a promising future.

"He was such an adorable little boy, such a joy," said longtime family friend Lee Ann Fagan, a nurse in Sonoma County. "His entire childhood his future seemed so bright."

A star defensive lineman and straight-A student at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, Martinez was a popular -- if nonconformist -- figure on campus.

"Everyone loved him. He was warm, positive, brilliant. He was a math whiz even though he barely studied," Schwartz said. "All the girls were asking him to the prom."

He never adhered to social norms, however, always "staying true to himself," Schwartz said. That originality and self-confidence endeared him to his classmates, largely because he was such a kindhearted person.

He planned to study business at UC Berkeley, but once he enrolled he became more interested in academic subjects like rhetoric and sociology.

Martinez earned the moniker "Naked Guy" in 1992 when he was a sophomore and started attending class in the buff, give or take a book bag and sandals. His nakedness was a form of free speech and a challenge to what he called the sexual repression of Western society, he told reporters.

At 6-foot-2, with an athletic physique and handsome face, he gained instant fame on campus and beyond. He appeared in Playgirl magazine, on national TV talk shows and in dozens of newspapers.

"He wanted us to question the things we take for granted about Western values," Schwartz said. "He wanted to us challenge the norm."

In typical Berkeley fashion, Martinez's nudity soon hatched a political movement. In September 1992, Martinez organized a "nude-in" on campus, in which about two dozen people stripped down to their birthday suits to exert their right to free speech. Martinez became a hero to nudity advocates and garnered a devoted following, including the Berkeley performance troupe X-plicit Players.

But unlike many Berkeley radicals, Martinez was never preachy or hostile. He was good-natured, easygoing and upbeat, and didn't try to force his opinions 0n others, friends said.

Martinez's run-ins with the law began in the fall of 1992, when he was arrested for indecent exposure while jogging naked near southside dormitories at 11 on a Saturday night.

The charges were dropped, but he was arrested again when he showed up at his court date naked.

Three months later, he was expelled from UC Berkeley for violating a campus code of conduct.

Martinez continued with his academic and athletic activities, however, for about two more years. He competed in judo and was writing a book until his mental illness threw his life into disarray.

On Jan. 10, he was arrested after a fight at a halfway house where he was living and charged with two counts of battery and one count of assault with a deadly weapon. He was in maximum-security custody in Santa Clara County Jail in San Jose.

On Wednesday night, a guard checked on him at 11 p.m. and he was fine, but a few minutes later other inmates reported hearing sounds coming from his cell. An officer returned at 11:19 and found Martinez unconscious. He was taken to Valley Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead early Thursday.

Martinez had been through horrible times in the past 10 years, but even in the throes of psychosis he retained his charisma and generous spirit, his family said.

"I'd send him stuff in jail and he'd give it all away because he knew that so many people there have nothing -- no one to visit them, send them things, fight for them," his mother said. "He always had friends."

The last time she saw her son was three weeks ago, when she visited him in jail.

"He was sad. He was tired. He said he had had enough," she said. "I alerted everyone, but nothing happened."

"You could see it in his eyes -- the meds were taking a lot out of him," Schwartz said. "It's just such a waste. This never should have happened."

I'd say the Bay Area has its fair share of colorful people

BTFLCHLD · #56 05-10-2007, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard B

Your sass turns me on.

now you know why I am so sasssssy!

amber · #57 05-11-2007, 01:25 AM

Lovely spirited super talented geniuses with mental problems who die badly make me really, really sad. Especially if they are good at music and sports, in addition to school. It also makes me think about connections between genius and crazy. It looks like music guy was actually diagnosed, but it doesn't even sound like naked guy had too many mental problems until he kept getting arrested and put in jail.

And I can't believe no memorial was planned for super music genius guy.

I wonder how much his drug use contributed to his mental illness?
I think acid was particularly nasty back in the day. See FM guitarist for corroboration. (sp?)

Plus I've heard other crazy acid stories from then. Yikes.

I've never seen the SF Twins, but I don't think they are creepy. They're just old twins, who dress alike. What's creepy about that? I think they are cute. Sure, they're older, and wear a lot of makeup and their hair is all...older lady hair...but they seem like they have really nice spirits, and are friendly and nice, what with all the smiling. And they seem to have done what they wanted - totally embraced their twinness. If that is how they feel, then they should do what they want.
Twins do have a special thing. I mean, they are kind of just like your eccentric great aunt or something. Your great aunt who kind of wears clown makeup...

BlackWidow · #58 05-11-2007, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amber

Lovely spirited super talented geniuses with mental problems who die badly make me really, really sad. Especially if they are good at music and sports, in addition to school. It also makes me think about connections between genius and crazy. It looks like music guy was actually diagnosed, but it doesn't even sound like naked guy had too many mental problems until he kept getting arrested and put in jail.

And I can't believe no memorial was planned for super music genius guy.

I wonder how much his drug use contributed to his mental illness?
I think acid was particularly nasty back in the day. See FM guitarist for corroboration. (sp?)

Plus I've heard other crazy acid stories from then. Yikes.

I've never seen the SF Twins, but I don't think they are creepy. They're just old twins, who dress alike. What's creepy about that? I think they are cute. Sure, they're older, and wear a lot of makeup and their hair is all...older lady hair...but they seem like they have really nice spirits, and are friendly and nice, what with all the smiling. And they seem to have done what they wanted - totally embraced their twinness. If that is how they feel, then they should do what they want.
Twins do have a special thing. I mean, they are kind of just like your eccentric great aunt or something. Your great aunt who kind of wears clown makeup...

Where have you been???