Tag: movie theatre

left me blindly here to stand but still not sleeping

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Mission Street, SF
San Francisco: I walked around South Beach looking for a Chase cashpoint (their tagline should be ‘Chase – because you have to run around looking for them’) until I finally found one after walking about fifteen thousand miles. The thing about getting money out from cashpoints over here is that it’s so darned expensive if it’s not from your bank. You get charged about two or three bucks by the cashpoint, plus another three bucks by your own bank for daring to get money from someone else. Six bucks just to get out a twenty, just to get change for the bus? You’re having a laugh, ‘int ya? Cash is so old-fashioned anyway. Anyway I finally got some dollar bills, and then because I was already at Market St I decided to hop onto the BART, wich is the Bay Area’s subway system, for which you don’t actually need to use cash (doh!). The BART ticket machines are so bizarre when using cash it is hilarious watching newbies try to figure them out (and I used to be one of them), the whole adding your money, subtracting 5c here and there to reach the right amount, well I’m not making it sound complicated but it really is. I ended up at the Mission District, which is my go-to area when I’m not sure what to do in San Francisco. There’s so much to draw, so many interesting shops, lots of colour and character, great food, great art, and a lurking mix of unbearable hipsterness and extreme danger. I was happy though, because I found a football shirt shop with the Barcelona game on, and chatted to the women working there about football (soccer) shirt designs. This being a big Spanish speaking area you see a lot more people in football shirts, which is a good thing.

I sat on the sidewalk and drew this old closed-down movie theatre, the Tower. I’m drawn to old run-down buildings, with history and personality. I overheard someone ask as they passed me, “why is he drawing that building? Maybe it means something to him.” It doesn’t, but I’ll bet it means something to a lot of other people. One comment when I posted this drawing on my Facebook page told of going to see double-bills for four bucks as a kid. there are lots of old movie theatre buildings about, some repurposed into other things such as stores or religious venues or night clubs, some refashioned into art-house cinemas, and some just left to the termites.

varsity blues

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varsity theatre davis (in progress)

The Varsity Theatre in Davis, drawn last Friday evening after work. I had considered finishing this at home with some additional colour, but I got back and realised I quite like it like this. This place shows a lot of art-house and independent movies, though I’ve only been to see a film there the once (An Inconvenient Truth back in 2006). In fact it only reopened back in 2006 (I was working at the bookstore acros the street the day it opened), but the building dates back to 1950. It makes this place feel very ‘Hill Valley’; I fully expect that it will be showing Jaws 19 with a holographic shark some time in the next four years (but only if Jaws 19 is considered art-house, which is unlikely. More likely we’ll see a Jaws reboot before then – you heard it here first!). People always have great memories of cinemas. For me they are like Tardises, you step inside and suddenly space and time mean nothing, I can never fathom how so many big screens fit into what look like fairly smallish buildings. They are full of memories too; sweeping movie moments, first (or last) dates, that smell of popcorn. This place is no different, is a beloved Davis part of the Davis community. I should know, I’ve drawn it enough times.

a thousand things i wanna say to you

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sc31 valencia postsc31 valencia musicians

Valencia Street is full of art and artists, drink and drinkers, food and eaters, and interesting folk. Strolling down on the way to Mission Comics and Art I was striuck by these great message posts up and down the street, places where people can post their flyers without getting all over the telegraph poles. Each was decorated with a different colourful headpiece. A little further down, some Mexican musicians were taking a break to tune up their instruments, so they got sketched as well.

Mission Comics and Art on 20th is a great store, one I had not been to before but whom I follow on Facebook. I had a good nose around there, and loved the gallery of Mission comic images at the back. I wanted to get one of Joey Alison Sayers’s zines; I love her stuff, it is hilarious (see her site here) but have had bad luck finding her zines (and I gave the first one I bought years ago to my nephew). When I met her at her stall at SF ZineFest last September, I had already spent most of my money on other (less interesting) zines so only bought one then. I was pleased then to find another one at Mission Comics, “Just So You Know”, which was a lot of fun to read on the train home.

sc31 mission theatresc31 mission corner shop

And then into Mission Street itself. It’s a little bit rougher here, but it’s funny, because it reminds me of London a bit, Kilburn High Road or somewhere. Not the Latin-American feel – you can’t get good proper Mission burritos in London, for sure – more the rough edges. Definitely not the palm trees. I sketched the old Mission theatre, and then a corner shop. I wasn’t finished sketching for the day, but it was time to go and meet up with the other sketchcrawlers at Dolores Park… (to be continued)

sketching islington

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camden passage islington

London, December 2010. The rain had come like an old friend and washed away the snow; no more dreaming of White Christmases after this one, more like dreading. I took a ‘sketching day’ and got on the tube to Islington. I like Islington a lot, and would happily live there and vote New Labour and read the Guardian and go to the theatre and all the other things Islington people union jack chairdo (except support Arsenal of course). We lived for a few years not far away on the edge of the borough at Hornsey Lane (I love steep hills! so now I live in Davis). This is Camden Passage, an interesting little street just off Upper Street (not in Camden at all), full of charming antique stores and little cafes (trendy or otherwise). I sketched it while listening to people speak French (and German occasionally) all around me, which was nice.

I was on my way to Cass Arts’ flagship store (it’s very big, but has exactly the same products as the smaller store in Soho, just more of them) and I whipped my sketchbook out to draw some of the interesting things being laid out in the street in front of one such antique store (‘Decorext’ I believe it was called). They had a pair of these interesting Union Jack chairs, and I had to draw one of them, being the foreign tourist that I am. This would make a fine seat for anyone watching the Royal Wedding this April. Pass the Battenburg.

One of the other buildings I really couldn’t resist sketching was the Screen on the Green cinema. I’ve only been in there once (I think I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 there) but it’s historic and Islington. For some reason I chose to use my coloured micron pens for the neon signs. Drawing old movie theatres is fun. After this, I jumped onto a double-decker bus and went to Piccadilly.

screen on the green, islington

sketching in islington

movies, comics and frilly underwear

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the varsity, 2nd st

Worldwide Sketchcrawl 30, Davis Caliornia, continued… after lunch, I was eager to get back outside and do some sketching in the glorious sunshine. And I did, too – I sat right in the sun, almost getting burnt. Forgot my hat; colars went up, and sketched quickly. January in Davis, lads, gotta love it. I sketched the Varsity theatre on 2nd St, yet again. Against a blue sky, it’s impossible to resist.

I then sketched the window display of Luxury OutHouse on F St, which sounds like a showroom for RVs or garden sheds, but actually sells fancy bathroom soap and dressing gowns and stuff, and interesting looking lingerie. I had to sketch it.

sketchcrawl lingeriebizarro world

And my last sketch of the day, Bizarro Comics on E Street (because lingerie and comic shops seem to go together, for some reason). As I crossed the road after sketching this, an SUV with cowboy-hatted driver almost ran me over, though I was on the crosswalk already – he wasn’t looking ahead, and didn’t see the crosswalk. I raised my eyebrows at him as he passed without stopping, and he shouted ‘asshole how am i supposed to see you?’
‘If you were looking where you were going, you would have,’ I replied, but he was already driving off making unnecessary hand gestures at me.
At which point I used my super lazer eyes to shrink his car to mouse size, and my mutant powers over magnetism to force lift him into a tree full of crows. That might make a good comic…

Photos from the sketchcrawl to come!

a city in three acts

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three shots of sacramento

Sacramento on a Tuesday. After watching Portugal draw with the Ivory Coast, I bussed across the Causeway to the capital city. The colourful and historic Crest theater on K street was just asking to be sketched. It’s a gorgeous building, opened in 1949 (though there was a theatre there since 1913) I’m not a big fan of downtown Sac, never really as busy as a downtown should be, the only bustle being the hum of the light rail and the shuffle of the panhandlers. It does give me some ‘urban’ to sketch though.

I prefer it in Midtown, further up the road. There is a little more character, and some pretty cool shops. There is a whole little arts district by the railroad tracks now called ‘MARRS’ (midtown art retail restaurant scene). I had to stop in the Streets of London pub on J Street to watch the Brazil vs North Korea match. It was a good one. I drew the middle picture at half-time. Brazil won 2-1. I had fish and chips. The chips were not good.

After some more sketching and shopping and strolling, I went to catch my bus by the Capitol building, the last subject of this triptych. This building is always in the news here, because of the state budget crisis. State workers in suits marched here and there past beggars and palm trees, not a furlough day for them today (though it was for me, hence my midweek sketching trip). And so back home.

all on a misty morning

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SF trip, part 4: After a fairly good sleep, I got up on sunday morning and found the nearest place on Polk that sold enormously sticky custard-filled pastries, and came across a little shop called “You Say Tomato”, which specializes in British (and Irish) foods. And to my delight, they had a can of Lilt!

drinking pop on larkin

Yes, Lilt, the pineapple and grapefruit fizzy drink, you can’t get it over here and it’s the perfect sunday morning (when you think you might get a hangover) beverage. They had other stuff, Tizer, Irn-Bru, and I purposely didn’t take too much of a look around in case I was waylaid by loads of cadbury’s chocolates, but I saw a man carrying five or six cans of Heinz Baked Beans: pretty obvious he was British. I found an interesting corner and drew the picture above while drinking my Lilt, carefully removing all of the cars to give the impression that SF has more parking than it really does.

Unlike the day before, Sunday was pretty cool and very foggy, which was a welcome change. I got on the bus and was changing at fillmore, in the bit with all the cute little shops and cafes, when I saw this movie theatre below, and decided to draw that too, in extremely muted sepia tinted colours. And I never did get that hangover.  

clay theatre, fillmore street