Tagged: Doggie Diner
SF’s Prince of Junk and his Vanished Domain.
Ace neon sign. Made from junk neon of course. photo: Scott Beale
Los Banos plays Ace. photo: Scott Beale
Ace Auto Dismantlers was one of THOSE places. You could walk through the barbwired chain link gate on a desolate and dire looking stretch of McKinnon St. in SF’s dodgy Bayview right into the midst of precarious piles of junk cars, appliances, scrap metal and the like; the cast off detritus of a spoiled society – not the kind of place that most any banker, bureaucrat or corporate lawyer could EVER conceive of anything of value ever transpiring. That’s how we fooled them for so long…..twenty-five years to be exact. Ace proprietor Billy the Junkman was assisted by a pataphysically gifted crew of rounders, scroungers, hackers (the old school kind using sawzalls, fork lifts and cutting torches), slackers, grease monkeys and philosophers: Pervert, Jarico, Rat Girl, Mongoloid, Number 3, Numbers 2 & 1 too, Bee Keeper, Sue, Einstein, Julian the MD from China and more.
Billy Kennedy is from an old school Irish Catholic Frisco junkyard and moving company family. Rough, tough & mean, the Kennedy clan owned several junkyards in the Bayview. The sons each had their own yard. Billy’s was the only one on leased land and, after 25 years the lease was not renewed.
Long time tenant and frequent performers at Ace. SF’s Cyclecide Rodeo. Chief rodeo clown Jarico Reese was also one of Aces long time junkyard employees – torch cutting cars up, smashing metal and pushing piles of junk around in a sisyphian work setting. photo: Scott Beale
During those 25 years, William Kennedy became one of the most unique and generous patrons of the low arts in town. Starting with the mad genius welders and machine builders of Survival Research Labs in the 80’s and continuing on through artists and makers of all stripes, Ace Auto and Billy the Junkman provided material for a thousand projects for pennies, sometimes for free, to poverty stricken Cacophony, Burning Man or punk rock artists.
All types of events were staged at the yard, the bands and makers usually keeping the $$ (as long as they keep Billy and crew stocked up with cheap beer). Concurrent with Billy’s growing awareness of the odd artists starting to flock to his junkyard for materials and inspiration, was a transformation in the Junkman himself. Billy, always the black sheep in an old school and sometimes callous neighborhood culture, blossomed as a person and as he says: “found his people.” This process included colorful finger nail polish, tiger print summer blouses and blood red pumps. Needless to say, his family didn’t necessarily get the new Billy. Fortunately, he could give as good as he got duking it out with his tough guy brothers.
photo: Scott Beale
Ace is gone now, one of the early casualties of the ever increasing property values and short sided greed combined with poor city planning that has incessantly driven artists out of this once artist and weirdo friendly town.
Yasi Mak, artist and builder (Flaming Lotus Girls) has been working on a feature documentary about Ace for several years now. She has a amassed a lot of priceless video of audacious and precarious performances, daily work scenarios, crazed encounters, candid interviews and embarrassing interludes, all taking place at this place – a place that is hard to imagine now. A place the likes of which you will never see in San Francisco again.
She has a kickstarter to help fund the movie: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/385694025/ace-in-the-hole-death-of-a-junkyard?ref=nav_search
The Junkman takes a break. photo: Scott Beale
It is so important to save, archive and display works that memorialize places like Ace and people like Billy Kennedy. They are the unsung heroes of our culture. In the case of Ace, it was one of the very first places where blue collar, hard ass working folks with attitude and young impressionable artists (and some older cynical ones too!) came together to blow things up and make noise, giving early grounding for what would become the Maker Movement and the best of the Burning Man builders ethos. Those who come later often get the lion’s share of credit, but great things often start with a hand full of regular folks just deciding to work together to F*** S*** UP and have fun!++
There are two other events taking place that will support Yasi’s film and explain a little more about it’s importance to the genesis of populist art that has exploded out of the Bay Area over the last 20 years.
Yasi Mak, Karen Cusalito (American Steel Studios) and I will be speaking about the film and kickstarter as well as Karen’s salvaged Bay Bridge steel for art project at East Bay Mini-Maker Faire on Sunday the 19th at Noon
And on Thursday the 23rd, Yasi will show a very rough cut of the segments of the film shot thus far at The SwearHouse 1660 Jerrold Ave., SF
San Francisco’s classic Doggie Diner Heads and Junk. photo by Scott Beale
The Power Tool Drag Races. photo by Scott Beale
Please spread the word and come to both or either event if you can.
cheers – JL
http://laughingsquid.com/?s=Ace+Auto
http://ebmakerfaire.wordpress.com/schedule/
http://laughingsquid.com/farewell-to-ace-auto-san-franciscos-most-unique-event-space/
http://laughingsquid.com/power-tool-drag-races-2008-photos-video/
https://www.facebook.com/events/1536175433283135/
http://aceintheholefilm.com/blog/screening-party
Billboard Liberation Front at Steven Wolf Fine Art
http://www.stevenwolffinearts.com/dynamic/exhibit_artist.asp?ExhibitID=152
This show is not a retrospective, rather a small selection by Steven of two memorable BLF “Improvements” with beautiful photos by A. Leo Nash and Nicole Rosenthal. We’ll be sharing the gallery with Anthony Discenza, Jacqueline Gordon, Victor Moscoso and psychedelic poster artist Robert Fried. The opening is this Saturday the 12th of July, 2014. I won’t be there – I’m off on a UE trip to the Midwest. Other BLF Ops may be in attendance. Steven is planning a closing party for August 16th which I will be attending – I’ll be missing Lynyrd Skynyrd to be at this closing party, a sacrifice I had to make, so I hope you will drop what you’re doing and stop on by too.
Ronald McDonald’s fiftieth birthday. Board by Ron English & Jack Napier. Ad Copy JN & _____ DeCoverly. Bigger than life animatronic Ronald & fat kid by D.P. Swain, Jen Gilles, Louise Jarmilowicz. special thanks to Katy Bell, our Many Ronald costumes, Tarssa Yazdani
Apple Campaign Napier and DeCoverly
NSA/ATT campaign by Milton Rand Kalman.
The BLF finally retired a few years ago after a 35 year run. It had been a lot of fun, but the thrill was gone. Addressing later generations in a book foreword, Shepard Fairey said (to paraphrase a bit): “Check out the BLF, they’ve been hacking billboards since before you were born!” And that was years ago.
Suicide Club billboard “improvement” 1977. Created by 26 Suicide Club members attending an “Enter the Unknown” event created by Club founders Gary Warne & Adrienne Burk. This event inspired Irving Glikk (Suicide Club co-founder Dave Warren) and young fellow member Jack Napier (John Law) to found the BLF on X-mas day 1977.
BLF spin-off group Billboard Movement (BM) Board by Glikk (Dave Warren, Arnold Fleck, and Jean Moshofsky.
Then, a few years later, I was inadvertently outed by my pal, rocker Anton Newcomb and, unlike Banksy, no one seemed to notice or much care. Ow! Then I outed long time copywriting partner and retired BLF propagandist Stuart Mangrum “_____ DeCoverly”. Bruised egos crave company…. Well, I had to remind myself, it was a heckadventure and, after any number of close calls, we remained unscathed, un-injured (35 years and not one single work place accident!) and with the exception of the initial Suicide Club improvement in 1977, un-captured. We had stayed incognito, using silly nom de guerres, sporting masks, dyed hair, funny glasses and the like, for decades. We kidnapped journalists, shocking and amusing them enough that they wrote about our exploits with humor and energy without being too critical. 
By the end of the new millenniums first decade, the new generation of BLF Ops had moved on to the serious pursuits of middle age. Many passed thru the organization over the years, most were fellow pranksters in Cacophony and the earlier Suicide Club. Co-founder Irving Glikk (David T. Warren, co-founder of the Suicide Club and early ignitor of the silly wooden figure now worshipped on the Black Rock Desert each year) passed away in 2010 at seventy-one. Dave was one of the great inspirations in my life. He was the “Spirit of Chaos” in the Suicide Club. Once in the late 70’s as I was just embarking on a lengthy solo cross-country hitch-hiking adventure, Dave with somber mien, gave me a giant rubber thumb declaring: “Here kid, you’ll need this on the road!”
The BLF was a primary creative outlet for me for many years, but all things come to pass. I’ve settled into other pursuits in recent times, becoming more interested in and energized by slipping back into small group UE adventures, restoring the ridiculous and sublime giant DogHeads that I somehow have become responsible for, and knocking off the occasional book event for our history of the Cacophony Society with co-author (and past BLF Art Director) Carrie Galbraith “Ethyl Ketone”.
Invalid Stock Value (multiple internet start-up billboards) campaign – _____ DeCoverly. Field install assistance from BLF 2.0 (the younger, new crew) with special thanks to Amanda Hav (Paul Addis RIP)
Former BLF operative Conrad Hoc “Scott Beale” our first webmaster, got us online initially, and way back in the 90’s convinced me of the importance of the digital realm as a means of archiving and preserving work done in meat space. Milton will probably link this blog post to the official BLF website <billboardliberation.com> and we’ll call it a day with the exception of any future gallery, academic, historical or law enforcement interest (the statute of limitations is closing fast, fellas..)
I’m Sick of It – campaign by Milton Rand Kalm
This is the first of 2 posts that will serve, for the time being, as my digital “closing the book” on the BLF. In the next post before the closing party at Wolfe Fine Arts, I will out and tip the hat to everyone I can recall that passed through the group from 1977 til we closed shop in 2010. If you are a past operative, please drop me a line and let me know if I may use your “real” name in my next post. I will also include many more photos of “improvements” made by BLF over the years with short anecdotes about the actions.
cheers, “Jack”
http://www.stevenwolffinearts.com/dynamic/exhibit_artist.asp?ExhibitID=152