“Turns out there was a hunger for San Francisco stories, as well as a real need for entertaining and accurate presentation of local history — history made accessible without dumbing it down.” — Sparkletack.com
Growing up, I used to catalog my life by obsessions… there was the gold rush era, the William Randolph Hearst era, the Steinbeck era, the Gone with the Wind era, the Alanis Morissette era, etc. , etc. While I no longer get as single-mindedly enthralled as I once did (perhaps for lack of time), I still take pride in my dorky obsessions (in a self-deprecating sort of way)–the latest of which is the Sparkletack podcast.
It started when I discovered that the first annual Treasure Island Music Festival was being planned. Ever since a sailing trip one beautiful and atypically sunny day on the San Francisco Bay, Treasure Island had filled my imagination and emerged at the top of my “to explore” list. Its unnatural birth and subsequent decay is somewhat reminiscent of the Salton Sea area that I read about in Salt Dreams and saw in the documentary Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, yet it is so much more magical with its perfect rows of palm trees and desolate buildings silhouetted against the city skyline. Like a deserted hollywood backlot, is it even real? I found out about the festival–which boasted some great indie bands–and was grateful for the excuse to set foot on the island and ponder the development planned for it. I browsed the festival’s web page from time to time. As the show grew closer, the site was improved and a long and detailed history of the island appeared. I attempted to read it while vacationing in Hawaii but didn’t make much headway since I was preoccupied with several books and couldn’t really see my laptop screen in the sun by the pool. A short time later, I found that there was an audio version of the history page. I started playing it but postponed when I realized it was two hours long.
I eventually downloaded what I discovered was a podcast in two volumes and started listening one afternoon in order to entertain myself while sitting down to lunch at a nice restaurant alone. It turned out to be one installment in a series of stories about San Francisco called Sparkletack. Having recently rediscovered the wonder that is my ipod, I listened to the rest of the podcast last weekend during a ride on BART to Pleasanton. The narrator’s voice reminds me of the guy from NPR’s This American Life. The sounds of seagulls introduce the podcast and remove the listener from reality, much like the great movie palaces did with their decorative and eclectic charm. He essentially reads a well-researched essay similar to some of the stuff I wrote at Stanford for the 1906 earthquake centennial, and it’s absolutely captivating in a way that a long-winded audio book or short essay on a few pages could never be. I was so moved that I think people on the train found me strange as I stared intently at a shifting focal point deep in thought. The verbal images of Treasure Island’s heyday during the successful but unprofitable World’s Fair on the eve of World War II nearly brought me to tears–partly due to the vivid imagery, partly because for the insight into my city, and partly because I had discovered something new.
I stepped off the train having determined that I needed to explore Treasure Island immediately. I had inexplicably missed the music festival on account of a life too busy and felt that the new car I was picking up was the perfect excuse to drive for the sake of driving (particularly because I would have much better gas mileage than before, but that’s another story). A few hours later, I followed the exit off the Bay Bridge that had always intrigued my unconscious. I was filled with wonder at the grand vulnerability of San Francisco and had one of the best evenings of my life in glorious solitude. I took in the ghosts of the island’s history and followed the roads having no idea where they would lead me nor how long I would be gone. Close up, it was larger than anticipated. I’m planning a return trip to Treasure Island as well as more research which I will detail later, but I was so moved that I immediately downloaded more Sparkletack.
I have always loved the documentary format, but there’s something special about these audio essays. The absence of images makes the podcast the ideal medium for these stories and invites one to first imagine then search for the authentic picture online or elsewhere. The podcast as a format gives me what I was looking for in the old radio tapes I listened to as a child (The Shadow, etc.). I’m jealous that I didn’t come up with this idea.
Topics I’m excited about:
- Adolph Sutro, the populist millionaire
- Streets of San Francisco
- Patty Hearst, revolutionary sweetheart
- Moving the dead — San Francisco cemetaries
- Alcatraz (cliche, I know)
- The golden gate bridge and suicide
- The bella union and the barbary coast
Filed under: Technology
