Z

This is a picture I shot of Zarathustra, who goes by several iterations of his ridiculously long name. He's an awesome artist, activist, writer, and all around creator of positive things... mostly. He's also from Delaware and some of the older people from Newark might remember him. I don't remember much about him from Delaware, but I re-met him in San Francisco where he lives now.

I was thinking about Z the last couple days as I've been reading "On the Lower Frequencies: A Secret History of the City" by Erick Lyle (who I knew as Iggy Scam) of Scam Zine, one of the great punk zines about getting over on the man, punk and politics, and in a much bigger sense, trying to create a life you want to live, though that last point probably wasn't as apparent as it is now, when one can read all his zines and see him trying to figure it out, the prevailing direction he was always, still is, and back then probably then a little unbeknownst to him, heading toward. He interviews Z a couple times in the book, about graffiti and activism, and helping create the incredible 949 Market Street community space that the cops eventually shut down. There might be more, but I'm only halfway through the book, though I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone, especially anyone who has spent time in SF. Another thing I remember about Zara and Erick is that they were probably two of the top four shoplifters I've ever met.

It was really cool to read Erick's book and see interviews with people I knew back then, the things they were doing before I met them, and how they were living in the city those years ago: living on welfare, donating time at food banks and needle exchange groups, hanging out and meeting the neighborhood and being known by them, really on-the-level kind of stuff. I found his history of Hunt's Doughnuts, a SF fixture on 20th and Mission that became synonymous with all-that-was-wrong with the City, really intriguing and well done. It made me want to re-read that history of Mission Records article I wrote for MRR back in 2005 or something. Two notoriously infamous places only blocks apart with a long, storied, and somewhat lost history. Aside from reading about old friends, Hunt's Doughnuts was probably my favorite part.

I was involved with these people back then. They were variously my friends and associates, partners in crime, though I think back then I was much more into the destructive, illegal side of things than positive activism. It was really Mission Records that brought me into their lives, living with Buzz and in the space. I missed the heyday of the place and only had the ghosts really to experience. But all those friends really showed me that things could be poor and dark, a struggle and great all at the same time.

I took this one outside of, I think, Rachel's house, which was on Capp Street at the time. We may have been doing something for the Anarchist Fashion Show. Actually I wasn't doing anything; I was just wearing clothes Z made.