Nude-In Today at San Francisco’s City Hall

Lincoln looked appalled

Your fearless reporter Rolling Crone flew into San Francisco last night, and with her morning coffee today read the following  headline in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Nudists Hope City Hall Protest will Get them Cited”

The article began:

“Getting naked in public will be illegal in San Francisco starting Friday.  How will the ‘Naked Guys” –and gals- commemorate the day?  Hint: not by putting their pants on.

“No, they’ll stage a protest of the city’s new ban at noon on the steps of City Hall.  And naturally, they’ll do it au naturel.

“Their goal, it seems, is to get cited by police officers so they can head back to court with the claim that their right to protest politically is being violated.  U. S. District Judge Edward Chen on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by the nudists attempting to overturn the city’s new ban on genital exposure, but he did say they could return to court if the city enforced the ban in a way that stifles a political message.”

 Since Rolling Crone is staying in a hotel near City Hall, she asked her equally fearless daughter Marina, who promised her on an insider’s tour of the city, to pass by City Hall to see the fireworks.  They drove up right behind a police van which pulled over and  escorted the only completely nude demonstrator in sight into the van.  He was a white haired and bearded gentleman who had, to paraphrase what  David Niven said when a naked streaker  broke into the televised Oscar program, extremely small assets to display.

Cops looked grim and demonstrators chanted loudly and profanely.  The most innocuous chant was: 

“Don’t Arrest, Cite and Release.”  Which is what the police did.  They escorted the completely nude gentleman to their van, issued him a citation and let him go, as they did to anyone else who had exposed genitals.  The almost-nude protestors were not harassed. 

Daughter Marina, who lives in San Francisco, strongly felt that nudity should be allowed.  Your faithful reporter, Rolling Crone, who has seen hundreds of naked bodies of all sizes, shapes and sexes while taking many figure drawing classes, pretty much agrees with daughter Marina.  Rolling Crone also feels, as a 1963 graduate of Berkeley and a veteran of demonstrations on more serious subjects, like capital punishment,  that the police acted with  admirable restraint and tact today.

But she also felt that some of the nudists should show equal tact and share their bodies only with friends and family.  And stick to warm climates like San Francisco.  (Can you imagine a similar demonstration among the snows of Boston?”

Stay tuned for more breaking news from San Francisco as the entire city hunkers down and most stores and companies close for Superbowl Sunday.     

Found Art: The Diners of Worcester

The city of Worcester (where I live) takes great pride in the city’s architectural landmarks and its contributions to modern civilization. Worcester boasts a number of “famous firsts”, including barbed wire, shredded wheat, the monkey wrench, the first commercial Valentines, the birth control pill, the first perfect game in major league baseball and the yellow Smiley Face icon.

 We have Coney Island Hotdogs with its famous neon sign, and the Boulevard Diner where Madonna ate spaghetti after a concert at the Centrum.  We have Table Talk Pies and Sir Morgan’s Cove (now Lucky Dog) where the Rolling Stones in 1981 gave an impromptu free concert. We have Mechanics Hall, where Henry Thoreau, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt,  Susan B. Anthony and Hillary Clinton have  orated and Auburn Park, where Robert Goddard sent the first liquid fuel rocket into space.

Worcester takes special pride in the  diners that  can still be found throughout New England and as far as Florida, because most of them were originally built  by the Worcester Lunch Car and Carriage Manufacturing Company which produced over 600 diners between 1906 and 1957.  The Miss Worcester Diner still stands in its original location across the street from the former factory.

Every year the Family Health Center of Worcester asks artists to donate examples of their work to the Art in the City Auction.  This year’s auction will take place on Friday, May 4, 2012 at Worcester’s famous Mechanics Hall.

I like to donate paintings or photographs to Art in the City every year, because the  Family Health Center provides health services to over 33,000 patients from greater Worcester, regardless of their insurance status or ability to pay.

Last year I donated four matted and framed photographs of Worcester landmarks which I had originally taken for an exhibit called “Welcome to Worcester” in  2010.  The show was put together by Elizabeth Hughes of the Futon Company on Highland Street. The photographs I donated last year featured the Owl Shop, the famous sign of Coney Island Hot Dogs, and photographs of the Miss Worcester Diner and the Boulevard Diner.  All the photos sold, and the diner photos were especially popular, so this year I’m donating  embellished digital photos of Ralph’s Diner (where the owner, Ralph Moberly’s ashes are buried beneath a tombstone in front) and a different shot of the Boulevard Diner at night.  I also contributed a photo of the Owl Shop’s neon sign against the bell tower of City Hall, and the clock tower of the Worcester State Hospital, long condemned and in danger  of being torn down until it was decided to replace it with a copy of the original building.

If the photos continue to prove popular with the public, I hope to photograph a half dozen more of the classic dining cars that still survive in Worcester and its environs, because the lovingly maintained, art deco details of these neighborhood restaurants, both inside and outside, are certainly found art.