August 2025 Newsletter: Happy Fogust!
Trying something new out here. This is the content of the monthly newsletter I just sent out. If you’d like to subscribe and receive monthly newsletter content—stuff that’s on my mind, stuff going on around San Francisco, and podcast info—head over to the About page of this site to sign up.
Season 7 Is Over. Long Live Season 7
What's up, good people? How are you? Another season of the Storied: San Francisco podcast has ended. You might be asking, "What's next?" Well, let me tell you ...
In no particular order:
1) I finally put together an honest-to-god listener survey! I know you're out there. You've signed up for this newsletter. Maybe you listen to the podcast. Maybe you've come to a live event or even bought Storied: SF merch. Whatever it is and whoever you are, I'm inviting your feedback because it's no use operating in a vacuum, right?
To make it EVEN MOAR enticing, after I close the survey at the end of August, I'll draw three emails and those folks will win a Storied: SF hoodie. Yep. Free shit!
2) I don't consider myself a tinkerer, but! I've decided to switch things up just a little. In Season 8, instead of releasing Part 1 one week and Part 2 the next, I'll be releasing Parts 1 and 2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays of the same week. Then there'll be a week off, then back the following week with another new episode. It'll end up the same number of episodes, but you won't have to wait as long to hear an entire podcast!
3) Some or most episodes will be a little shorter than you might be used to. For years, I've aimed for around 30 minutes. Starting this season, podcasts will be in the 20–25-minute range. Quality over quantity, y'all.
4) I've opened a Storied: SF Substack and am looking into moving this newsletter over there. I might also move other content to Substack, including episodes (big maybe). More on that to come.
5) The theme for Season 8 is "Every Kinda People." I wanna expound on that a little. We're living through some very fucked-up times. "Things" have been messy for a while, but they're headed into uncharted realms of fuckery now. There are 1,000s of things we can do to oppose the ever-growing fascism swirling around and trying its damnedest to envelope us. And one of the most vital tools in our kit is to simply love, respect, and appreciate one another. When I think "every kinda people," there's only one kind I would exclude (is it obvious?). Everyone else is welcome here. All I ask is that we treat each other decently. To put it more bluntly, I want us all to simply be cool. Be cool. Yeah.
Oh, and I suppose a look back at Season 7 is in order? I've got a million other things on my mind that I want to include in this "offseason" newsletter. So I kindly ask you to browse our archives (7+ years and 270+ episodes!) and maybe check out a podcast you missed when it dropped. #humblebrag but ... there's a lot of good stuff there. Head over to our Episodes page and go wild!
Every Kinda People: Art Opening
We're doing it again!
It's been a whole two months since our last art show. Too long. Now we're so, so excited to present Every Kinda People at Mini Bar, opening Sept. 4 and running through Oct. 21. Fourteen artists join this rad lineup for what promises to be a killer show celebrating diversity and community.
I'm so stoked to be doing another show at Mini Bar. Our last show there, Hungry Ghosts, was a grand-ol' time.
We'll be there to drink, talk, laugh, and sell Storied: SF merch from about 5 to 10 the evening of Sept. 4. Hope to see you!
What Has San Francisco Become?
"Denim Dan" being so serious and concerned. Courtesy 48 Hills
I gotta say, lately The City seems headed in a really worrisome direction.
After my depression about Election Day 2024 wore off, I turned my attention to home. My candidate didn't win the race for mayor, but I decided to give the political neophyte, ultra-wealthy incumbent a chance. Six months into Daniel "Denim Dan" Lurie's term, I don't like what I see. Not at all.
There are many examples I could point to that spell trouble for San Francisco, especially if you're a renter/worker/person of modest means. I want to bring your attention to two articles that upset me in terms of what's going on at City Hall.
The first, from 48 Hills, is something I'm calling "City of the people, by the people, but for the rich." 48 Hills' headline reads: "Lurie’s silence on Sanctuary City, the fees you will pay so billionaires don’t have to ..."
Another is a story of how the "build build build" mentality is primed to obliterate small businesses, also from 48 Hills. Their headline: "The looming threat to hundreds of small businesses in San Francisco."
I never put too much faith in politicians. Sure, some are better than others. But too many of them are beholden to vague and/or shady interests, and fail majorly to represent the people.
I don't know what the answer is, y'all. But I know one thing we have to do, and that is to stay informed. Keep an eye on what's happening. And when and where you can, raise hell.
My Nineties Texas Hard-Core Band
A much, much younger (18? 19?) version of me playing bass in Sleeping Body, location and photographer unknown
Speaking of hell-raising ... so, I was in a screamo punk band in the early Nineties. Most of my close friends are aware of that, but I doubt any of you are. Now you are.
I bring this up to both crack open a window into who your humble host is and to let you know that King of the Monsters and Protagonist Records have released a three-LP box set with my band (Sleeping Body), Voice of Reason, and Suiciety.
The release is called 1992 because that's the year that three hard-core bands in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area met and started playing very wild shows together, mostly at co-op venues we also helped to run. It was a whole damn thing that, eventually, led me to where I am today. Throughlines, y'all ...
A couple articles are up now about the new box set. I invite you to explore that world we worked to incubate in North Texas in the George H.W. Bush years: CVLT Nation has a nice write-up, and Idioteq did an interview with me and members of the other two bands. Thirty-plus years later, most of us are still friends and still similarly politically minded.
We'd been working over the course of the last several years, digging up photos and flyers and DAT recordings, pouring over art mock-ups, and deciding what we wanted this thing to be. Now that it's finally out, I'm incredibly relieved and proud to bring it to folks' ears. I truly believe the shit we were passionate about in 1992 is relevant to the mess we're in today.
It'll be available for digital download, or you can buy the set on KOTM. You'll have your choice of green or purple eco vinyl. It's as pretty a record as the music it contains is raw and angsty.
Downtown Arts Workers Mixer
Friend of the show Traci Ramos let me know about a cool event happening this week—a Downtown Arts Workers Mixer organized by CounterPulse, KALW, and CAST. Take it away, Traci!
We’ll have a get-together at CounterPulse on August 7th to view the current gallery exhibition Show Me Devotion, an exhibition featuring works by Adrian Clutario and Gericault De La Rose that enmesh Filipino folklore, Catholic iconography, and Queer and Trans nightlife into an otherworldly kiki. This reception is also a stop on The SF First Thursday Art Walk.
We’ll serve refreshments and gather together to chat to each other about our organizations, the work that we do, and possible resource sharing opportunities. Bring your business cards!
When: Thursday, August 7th, from 5 to 6pm
Where: CounterPulse, 80 Turk St, San Francisco, CA
Schedule for the evening:
5pm : Private Reception for Downtown Arts Workers begins
6pm: Public Reception begins
7pm: Artist Talk begins
8pm: Artist Talk ends
9pm: Reception ends
RSVP here!
July 2025 Rewind
Look at all those smiles! Top: Carolyn Sideco, photo by Jeff Hunt. Second row left: Dregs One, photo by Nate Oliveira. Second row right: Lisa Ellsworth and Gaelan McKeown, photo by Jeff Hunt
As is custom around here, I'd like to take a look at the month that just ended. July 2025 also marked the end of Season 7, of course. I like to think we went out with a bang.
We kicked things off in July by meeting and getting to know SF born-and-raised hip-hop artist, graffiti writer, and podcast host Dregs One.
Then I got to sit down with two members of the small team that put on the annual San Francisco Art Book Fair. Hear Lisa Ellsworth, director of Development and Strategy at Minnesota Street Project Foundation, and Gaelan McKeown, director of the SF Art Book Fair talk about the ninth annual event, which took place in Dog Patch early in July.
🎧 The 2025 San Francisco Art Book Fair
I ended the month and Season 7 with a long-awaited episode about Carolyn Sideco, one of my new favorite human beings. Carolyn is a goddam force of nature, and she's cool as hell!
And that's it! Nineteen feature episodes, 12 bonus podcasts (a new record for me!), and an art show in May, with another on the way. Seemingly like all rides these days, it was a wild one. I hope that I learned and evolved like I have in past seasons.
I thank you for sticking with me here. We gotta keep on keepin' on, lifting each other up.
Until September, take care of yourself and those around you.
Peace,
Jeff
