Richmond hoists are flying high
Biking near an East Bay waterfront one recent weekend, Chronicle Managing Editor Michael Gray looked up and saw a reminder of work: “William Randolph Hoist,” painted on top of a lifting device for boats.
Research revealed that this was at Keefe Kaplan Maritime, a full-service boatyard with offices in Richmond and Sausalito. “Our owners have a big sense of humor,” said Marianne Armand, head of marketing for the company. The company’s other equipment in Richmond includes “Ella Liftgerald” and “Ed Crane.” A hoist in Sausalito is labeled the “Hauly Greengiant.”
As to official family reaction to the tribute, chairman of the board of the Hearst corporation (which owns this newspaper) William Randolph Hearst III, said it “seems OK, but it sounds a little more like the New York pronunciation of Grandpa’s name.”
As Ryan Kost’s story revealed, the Miniature Book Fair is at the Marriott Oakland City Center from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 13. The books, of course, are art objects. But Mark Aronoff suggests they are also practical, “for filling your Millennium Tower bookshelves, so when they slide off onto your head you don’t get a concussion.”
A friend told Matt Regan that a colleague “threw her under the boss.”
And with buses/bosses in mind, Max de Frost suggests a Muni art festival competition, the winners of which would design full films to cover buses and create “the most beautiful buses in the world ... with discreet underwriter credit spaces clearly visible on each bus. ... Imagine what this tech-heavy, artistrich city could produce.”
Fifty years after the Summer of Love, in this, the Summer of Meh Punctuated by Threat of Nuclear Annihilation, thank goodness for the civilizing influence of public pianos. Yountville has an outdoor piano in front of its City Hall and library, and come Aug. 18 at 11 a.m., thanks to music- and civic-minded Bill Ryan ,a street piano on wheels will be installed in St. Helena’s Lyman Park, next to City Hall. The piano will be played on Fridays and Saturdays through October. The first pianist up is Mike Greensill.
It takes a village: Ryan thanks Barbara Lyle for donating the piano, and Terry Miller for tuning it; contractor Rodney Friedrich, who built an undercarriage to make transportation easier; Dave Lider, who moved it; and Bob Beckstrom and a team from Pacific Union Realty who will be moving it outside every day and then dragging it inside. Ryan will house it in his garage through the winter.
If it wags its tail: From a notice received this week about National Dog Day on Aug. 26: “According to a study by the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA), the world’s leading and largest funeral service association, one-third of Americans would be extremely interested or interested in having a therapy dog present at a funeral service.”
Meanwhile, Tom Walton forwards word that “some Bay Area VIPs” will participate in a DogFood Eating Contest at Pet Food Express on Blossom Hill in San Jose at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 12. The dog food to be eaten, says the company, is made of USDA meats and is fit for human consumption. Nonprofit shelters will reap some financial benefits from the proceeds of this event. As to the reputation benefits of a “VIP” who eats dog food, those may be negligible.
Deadline/Hollywood reports that Courtney Love, James Jagger, son of Mick, and Kelvin Harrison Jr. have signed on as cast members in a biographical movie about literary persona JT LeRoy, the writer conjured by American author Laura Albert. The film, directed by Justin Kelly, is based on the book “Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy,” written by Savannah Knoop, who made public appearances as LeRoy while Albert was doing the writing.
It isn’t clear what roles the three additions to the cast will be playing, but they’re not the leads. Laura Dern is playing Albert; Kristen Stewart is Knoop; Diane Kruger is playing a French actress who brings LeRoy to Paris, then helps the writer get a film deal. Early reports in Variety connected James Franco with the project, but his name isn’t mentioned in recent stories.
Although Albert and Knoop lived in San Francisco, the film is being shot in Toronto. Albert says her own book about her experiences will be out at around the same time as the movie.