Friday, August 5, 2022
Staycation day 7 of 9. Cleaned the bathtub before showering. Medium bowl of oatmeal with milk, flax meal, roasted pecans, diced half banana; water. I rode Muni to Civic Center Station, then walked to The Box. After you ring the doorbell, you're supposed to wait until someone opens the door. I met owner Mark, Melaine, Israel, and the occasionally loud but otherwise non-threatening-to-me shop dog (Solly or Sully?). The Box is a little-known shop containing lots of historical printed works, ephemera, and artifacts that aren't of your typical tourist value but which can be a goldmine for letterers, graphic designers, typographers, nostalgists, set designers, prop artisans, historians, and more. It's also a unique event space, with various rooms within. He claims to have 15 million items, and everything is for sale. It's like a museum but you can buy what you see. I looked through old, rare, and valuable pharmacy catalogs seeking inspiration for work, but it's hard to translate these old works and designs into modern design since the mediums, communications needs, and audiences were so different. It's not necessarily junk; I overheard him saying to another customer that he accepts materials in only 80% or better condition and that they are very careful about preventing mold, which I can imagine is disastrous for a place like this. I saw an old printing press. I enjoyed seeing huge cases of type drawers labeled with various font names. He explained leading to his other customers. There were message/order clipboards which I never knew existed. There were ancient typewriters that had designs that were odd even to me. He showed me framed prints from UCSF School of Pharmacy that Susie L or someone else had probably donated. He talked about how he was offered but didn't have space for a giant medicine cabinet that the Department of Clinical Pharmacy no longer wanted. I bought nothing but thoroughly enjoyed my visit. I then shopped at Mr. S Leather but bought nothing. Walked to La Cocina Marketplace and lunched at Boug Cali: two crispy beef tacos, Leidesdorf million dollar rose lemonade. This small meal was perfectly prepared and exactly what I needed. I walked to the Contemporary Jewish Museum and visited the Jim Henson exhibit on the free day. Among many other things, I learned that Jim Henson wasn't Jewish but Frank Oz (aka Oznowicz) was, that Grover was originally dark green instead of purple, that Miss Piggy's name was based on Peggy Lee's name, and that there's an interesting story about a Hitler puppet his family had created. Attempted some clothes shopping but bought nothing, visiting some shopping areas I hadn't been to in years. Rode Muni home. Dinner at home with Patrick: Patrick made for himself a ground chicken burger with fixins. I had leftover pollo pesto pappardelle. Water to drink. We watched Loot s1:e8 on Apple TV+ then What We Do In The Shadows s4:e5 on Hulu Basic Plan. While we watched I folded some laundry that Patrick had washed and dried earlier. Late at night I realized the pollo pesto pappardelle had likely upset my stomach, probably due to its richness.