This Thursday night, the Cal Academy and Noise Pop are having a very special party. Here’s the deal:
[T]his week NightLife is all about earthquakes! Be among the first to see the Academy’s newly opened Earthquake exhibit and planetarium show, complete with shake table and live ostriches. Also enjoy an Earthquake Sundae-eating competition by Ghirardelli Ice Cream and Chocolate Shop, soundQuake, meet the folks from the US Geological Survey and SPUR. Live music by Weekend and Violens presented by Noise Pop.
Sounds good! To win, tell us your best earthquake-related anecdote (or I guess an ostrich-related anecdote would work) in the comments section below. A winner will be chosen based on merit and awarded a pair of tickets for the party. Contest ends at noon on Wednesday.
Further details and advance tickets here.
Here’s a song by Weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJk41jsE_YQ
Four or so years ago I was living in Oakland and we had two or three kinda big earthquakes in a row. For the worst of them, we were all in the living room when it started; by the time we dashed to doorways, the floor was literally rolling in waves. stoned and terrified, the two crazy beezies I lived with were clutching eachother and squealing, while I managed to save the bong which had been perched precariously on a table.
You are obviously not from around here. There hasn’t been a “kinda big” earthquake in the Bay since 1989!
the floor ROLLED! sure, they were like 4.0, but they were centered way too close for comfort. my earthquake tolerance is low, despite a lifetime in the bay area.
I like earthquakes, not the San Jose Earthquakes though.
Does having a PhD in earthquakes count as an anecdote?
1989 earthquake – we had just got back from Disneyland, and I thought it was a ride so I shouted AGAIN!!! after it ended
i shared a bed with my little brother from the time he was a toddler up until it started to get weird.
anyway, the 1994 northridge earthquake happened some time in the early morning, and i remember waking up terrified. not because of the shaking (i was already used to them, such a jaded nine year old californian i was), but because the bed was soaked in piss.
my brother was a chronic bed-wetter and went in the middle of the night. he didn’t even wake up from the shaking.
Wa-a-a-ay back in 1989, when netscape wasn’t even a twinkle in your daddy’s eye, I was making acrylic vitrines at TAP on Mission near Army. The day of the Big One, I was rushing to get a job done at the end of the day so that I could duck out early and catch the beginning of The Game on tv. I had just turned off the band-saw, and was turning away from it with a piece of acrylic I had just cut out. It took a while for this band-saw to come to a complete stop after it was turned off. It was still rolling when the quake hit, and it toppled over right where I had been standing two seconds before. Had I not been rushing to catch The Game, a rolling band-saw would have fallen over on me, which would not have been very much fun. The Giants may very well have saved my life.
Later that night, beer was free at the Chatterbox while the power was off. Then we found a liquor store open somewhere, and watched the darkened city for hours in a nearly empty Dolores Park (“nearly empty” –no one’s going to believe that).
Years ago I had a summer job painting houses. We had a gig somewhere near Napa on a two lane highway. An elderly couple walked by and told us “Somebody should really call the cops about those ostriches. There’s going to be an accident.” We turned around and heard a huge crash. Long story short, a lone cop shows up and forces my co-worker and I into the ostrich herding business. The three of us are chasing ostriches around, trying to get them off the freeway as the folks in the three care pile-up fight and impatient drivers swerve around the scene. It was wild and completely ineffective.
SAFEQUAKE!!!!
1. I was 8 in the ’89 quake and over at my best friend’s house. He was on the swings and I was leaning over and tying my shoe, always a tricky position to balance in, when the quake started, while my friend on the swing was similarly ill-equipped to gauge the new movement. I kept falling over and trying again, so it took me about 20 seconds to realize the Earth was shaking. Like well-trained California kids we excitedly ran to the middle of the yard before deciding there were too many trees around and moving to a doorway. We were super proud of ourselves.
2. An old friend from the Bay moved to Portland awhile back and I was up visiting her and we were having one of those long heart-to-hearts you have with old friends who live far away. We started talking about fears and she said her greatest fear in life was not being in the Bay when the Big One happens. Despite the presumable destruction she was terrified of missing out on such a defining moment in the Bay Arean collective experience.
3. Back when it was on, I loved the show Eli Stone (yes, the one where the guy has future visions in which George Michael sings to him. Spoiler coming.) In it he predicts there’s going to be an earthquake that destroys the Golden Gate Bridge. When the earthquake happens and they show a shot of the bridge digitally collapsing, I just burst into tears. I was living in Arizona and never thought I cared about the bridge, but felt I’d learned a profound thing about my connection to my home. A year later I met Rebecca Solnit, and decided to share this anecdote with her figuring she’d understand and relate as a native who writes about cultural connection to place. I started explaining what the show is and she said she doesn’t watch TV. I said I just watch it on the internet while working and she told me I should really just be watching TED Talks. Tail between my legs, I gave up.
Coming from Southern California, I’ve had my share of earthquakes. “Earthquake culture” has come down to checking if your TV is still holding up against the quakes and if it isn’t, only then, is it important enough for you to find appropriate shelter. (For some of the smaller ones, you check Facebook just to make sure it wasn’t just a truck passing by) A couple of summers ago I was hanging out with my then-boyfriend at his house, chilling on the couch… the usual. We heard a truck come really close by. It must have been a huge truck, I was thinking, because it was making the whole house rumble… Then I realized: oh. earthquake. House-rumbling turned to earth-surfing as the ground swayed back and forth. Lucky for me, or so I thought, I was with my boyfriend and we could take care of each other through this rather big earthquake. Before I could turn around and say his name, he had ran into the nearest closet, without me NOR his little sister… Good, closet is supposed to be the worst place to be. I grabbed his little sister and found the nearest *DOORWAY* and rode it out until the quake passed. Earthquakes: showing the true colors of people.
On another note, the ostrich segment of Fantasia by Disney was my favorite.