IdeaJones

Tag: san francisco

  • ‘Ello, Guv’nor!

    ‘Ello, Guv’nor!

    “Guv’nor,” our donation to the PAWS fundraiser, Petitecture, inspired by the auction winner’s beloved dog.

    Waiting for the address to mail this to the person who won it at auction at the Pets Are Wonderful Support fundraiser in San Francisco. It was inspired by her dog, Guv’nor (who is, from the photo, adorable). PAWS is a great organization, helping people who are chronically ill keep their beloved pets. From their website:

    “PAWS believes that the healing impact of the human-animal bond is one of the best supports available for medically vulnerable individuals, and mounting evidence indicates that this bond can yield valuable health outcomes. For many people, having a companion animal is part of living a happy and fulfilling life. For some individuals, especially those who are chronically ill, frail, and isolated by disease or age, having a companion animal can be central to their health and well-being. Animal companionship becomes even more important when our human contacts diminish because of aging or illness.”

    I don’t make a lot of jewelry now (if you don’t count the 1,000+-and-counting Love Bead Safe Harbor Pins we have given away this year). Writing takes up most of my time, and artwork that I create for Redbubble.com and other online businesses. But we’ve been supporting PAWS for years now, and the mission is one we really believe in. Once, I stopped in to drop off jewelry for an event. Ahead of me was an elderly couple with their dog. As I waited, I heard them explain that they were checking in because their dog needed to see the vet. As they checked in, they told the receptionist how important the dog was to both of them. “He gives us a reason to get up in the morning,” the wife said. They expressed how grateful they were for PAWS, who helped with food and vet care they couldn’t afford.

    I was so glad to be a small part of what they do. PAWS is now partnered with another organization, Shanti Project, still helping those who are ill keep the pets who give them comfort and support, and keeping those pets out of shelters.

    If you’d like more information about PAWS, you can find it here: http://www.shanti.org/pages/paws_about_us.html

  • Places We Like: The Back Room, Berkeley, CA

    I missed the whole 1960s-hippies-coffeehouse-folk music thing. For me, the 1960s was learning to tie my shoes (some day I’ll tell you my penny loafer story, but let’s just say it wasn’t easy to learn shoe tying when one parent was right-handed and the other was left-handed), reading, playing with my dog and trying to “fly up” from Brownie to Girl Scout.  Weird my parents might have been, but they weren’t going to let their five-year-old hang out with the hippies at the coffee house. I saw that stuff on tv and in movies.

    But guess what? If, like me, you missed out on the 60s or you were there and you’re nostalgic, or you just like seeing music in small venues where you can actually hear and nobody’s blocking your view by standing on a chair, you’re in luck, if you can get to Berkeley, CA. Next time you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, make time to go to a show at The Back Room.

    It’s got that funky, comfortable feeling, brick walls, sofas (they also have some tables and chairs in the back). It’s “intimate,” both in the usual way that word is used to describe a venue (small) and in a real, accessible, welcoming way. My friend Janice and I saw James Lee Stanley there (and James Lee Stanley is a whole separate post, or will be), and it was all kinds of fun. The overall feeling is of seeing a performer at a house party. In the case of James, he chatted with the audience, asked for (and got) requests… it felt more like watching a friend perform in his living room than, say, an arena show. You feel like an insider.

    This is a venue that, based on our visit, deserves to thrive. It’s fairly new, so I’m hoping people get the word and try it, so it continues. If you live in the area, you’re in luck. If not, but you want to visit San Francisco in the future, make sure you bookmark their website, which is here: backroommusic.com

  • Love Bead Safe Harbor Pin Weekend Is Here!

    814 chances to choose radical respect!

    If you’re going to be within driving distance of San Francisco this weekend (June 2-4), and you’d like a free Safe Harbor pin (to show that you support treating everyone with respect), you can celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love and get yourself a free Love Bead Safe Harbor Pin.

    We started out planning to distribute 250 sets of pins (each card has 2 pins on it, so that’s 500 pins). We just finished packing up to make the trek, and we’re coming with 407 sets! 814 pins that promote “radical respect,” the idea that we can choose to treat everyone, even people we don’t understand, or with whom we disagree, with respect. We can recognize our common humanity.

    After this, we’ll try to carry a few spare sets with us (because, as other people who’ve gotten pins and worn them can tell you, it’s a conversation starter), but this is the last big pin giveaway we have planned. We’ll put a few in our Etsy shop with part of the money going to charities (like Opening Doors, helping refugees resettle, or Mustard Seed School, helping kids from homeless families), but this last distribution in San Francisco marks the end of the project.

    We have a couple of “pop up” sites that won’t be announced until just before they start, and one we can announce now. Here’s the schedule — for updates, like the pop-ups, check our Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/Ideajones/

    Friday, June 2:

    2-3 pm: Haight Ashbury Free Clinic, 558 Clayton Street, San Francisco, CA

    558 Clayton Street, San Francisco

    3-4 pm : Pop-up (location TBA, check our Facebook page) — we’ll announce it here when it’s time

    Saturday, June 3:

    10-11 am: Pop-up (location TBA, check our Facebook page) — we’ll announce it here when it’s time

    noon – 1 pm: SCRAP, 801 Toland Street, San Francisco

    A note about times — it’ll start at the listed time, and I’ll be there until I run out of pins. So far, they’ve gone quickly (I’ve given out more than 100 in 15 minutes). So if you really would like to get your hands on a set, best to be there as close to the start time as you can.

    If you know anyone in the Bay Area who might like a set of pins, please share this. Hope we see you soon! #safeharbor

  • The Love Bead Safe Harbor Pin Project

    The Love Bead Safe Harbor Pin Project

    The schedule for the 500 Safe Harbors pin event is coming together (more on that in a second). But just in case you’re new to the Safe Harbor movement…

    Safe Harbor is an idea that came to us from Great Britain (as did scones, which are wonderful, and tea, also great). People started wearing plain safety pins to signal that they were safe to approach, wouldn’t harm or be abusive toward you… that they were “safe harbors” in the social sea. I started wearing one after friends reported they or people they knew had been abused or threatened. They signal your commitment to treating people with respect and courtesy.

    Then reports started of white supremacists wearing plain safety pins. So I, and others, started decorating our pins, taking back the symbol. After quite a few conversations where I was asked to explain Safe Harbor, and ended up giving up the pin I was wearing, I began carrying a few in my purse wherever I went. If asked about my pin, I’d explain the idea of Safe Harbor and offer the person a pin. I put them on old business cards in little gift bags to tell the recipient “this is a gift, a bit of my time given to you.” Thus they became “love beads” as well, an idea that came out of the 60s, hand-beaded jewelry given to express friendship and good wishes.

    On a vacation, we met a young man who asked if I understood the significance of wearing a safety pin. I told him I did, and had made that pin, and offered him one of his own. Later, he showed me the hat he wears when he’s off work, with my pin front and center. He asked to hug me and said he was going to tell his friends about this. I determined to make more pins and give them away, spreading the idea of Safe Harbor.

    I made 100 pins and went out to give them away, no small task for an introvert. I was prepared for it to take hours, or even to come home with many of the pins. They were gone in 15 minutes.

    Now, I’m getting ready to try to distribute 500 pins in one weekend. You never know how people will respond, so I’m mentally prepared to come home with some of the pins. Talking to at least 500 strangers in one weekend sounds like trying to climb Mt. Everest with one foot in a cast (did I mention I’m an introvert?), but it’s happening.  Here’s why:

    At least 500 times, I’ll be spreading the idea of Safe Harbor. Tossing my pebble in the water and hoping some of the pebbles create ripples that spread. That people will consider, even if for a moment, that we have options in any interaction with others. We have the option of treating other people with respect and courtesy, even people we disagree with, or don’t like. If we don’t choose that option, it’s a choice to do whatever we do instead, because we could have chosen respect. People will have a choice of how to treat me, whether they accept the pin and hurry on, don’t accept the pin and hurry on, argue with me, talk to me, whatever. At least 500 times, I’ll be offering them an opportunity to stop for a moment and choose.

    When I give pins away, I do not solicit, nor do I accept, donations. People can choose to go online and sponsor a set of pins to be given away (and get a set for themselves), but in person, it’s a gift, from me, or from me and the person sponsoring that set of pins, given and accepted freely. I don’t ask where the recipient is from, what their politics are, who they sleep with, or what they believe. I only ask if they would like a free Safe Harbor pin. This is an apolitical movement.

    It’s simple, really. I’m advocating for what my mother would have called “simple decency and good manners.” She was a real fan of good manners.  As a work of art, it’s about choice, and consciousness. That we choose how we behave and react. Mom used to say that how you treat someone says a lot about who you are and who you want to be, far more than it says about the other person. This will be 500 little nudges, 500 opportunities for people to choose who they will be.

    I’m doing my largest event yet in San Francisco to mark the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. Specifically, I’m honoring the people who came together to help the kids who arrived in San Francisco with no money, nowhere to sleep,  no support system. Crowds of them descended on San Francisco in 1967, and the city wasn’t prepared for an influx of unemployed, broke kids. So people in San Francisco organized food, clothing, health care, help finding shelter, etc. That, to me, is the real beauty of the Summer of Love.

    Here’s the schedule so far. This event will be in San Francisco, CA on the weekend of June 2-4, 2017:

    Friday, June 2, 1-2 pm : Haight Ashbury Free Clinic,  558 Clayton Street. Celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, they help many of the poorest San Franciscans. I’ll be out on the street for one hour, giving away pins. Feel free to stop by, get a pin and say hello!

    Friday, June 2, 2:30-3:30 pm… meeting up with some tour groups on a Summer of Love tour. Wish I could say where, but the Parks Commission has asked that I not advertise. But if you see me, come on over!

    Saturday, June 3, 10-11 am… oooh, another park appearance, can’t say where! Silly, I know, but those are the rules, so if you’re interested, check your favorite SF park and you might find me.

    Saturday, June 3, 1-4 pm:  SCRAP, 801 Toland Avenue. The incredible recycler offering materials at low cost for artists and teachers. I’m teaching a class, open to the public, $20 including materials, on how to make Safe Harbor Love Bead pins. People who take the class will also get a set of pins from me, and if you’re at SCRAP while I’m there, hit me up for a set of pins. http://www.scrap-sf.org/workshops/

    Sunday — this one is still being confirmed, but I’ll announce it as soon as it is.

    If you know anyone in San Francisco, or who will be in the Bay Area that weekend, please let them know they can come to one of these events, get a set of Safe Harbor pins, and participate in a work of performance art!

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