I grabbed my spindle of blank CDRs from the closet today so I could burn some music onto a CD (I know, I know…how very old school of you, Mark). When I was pulling discs off the spindle I ran across a DVD labeled Mark’s San Francisco 1990-1991.
OMG.
I was convinced this DVD—dubbed by a friend from the original video tape in the early 2000s—had been lost in the fire six years ago. It turns out only the original videotape was gone; the DVD survived. (Probably because it was hiding on that spindle and not in the entertainment center with the rest of the DVDs.)
This was my one and only foray into making videos. I borrowed the VHS camcorder (a thing the size of a small car) from work on a few occasions to record scenes around the city, knowing that some day when I was old and gray (I was 32 when these scenes were filmed) that I’d want to see them—fully expecting to still be living there today. Little did I know what the next thirty-six years would hold for me and the rest of the world.
This video now survives as a historical record of not only bits of San Francisco thirty-six years ago, but also as permanent record of what my pre-cancer (the 2003 one, not the most current) sounded like…
t’s a bunch of random stuff that lasts a little over an hour: scenes of downtown (the guy in the blue shirt that shows up now and then is Mike, a guy I was dating at the time), a trip on MUNI to the beach, riding the California Street cable car, and two separate apartments (with a very boring nighttime trip to the roof!)
Anyhow if you have nothing better to do and want to watch something that’s as interesting as paint drying or water boiling, take a look. And when you comment (because I know you will) be kind. Ken Burns I am not.
1 comments
What a great find.
The CD is clear and crisp. I skipt through it.
During 90-91, I was living in Dallas and had just left the military.
I was also on the evening news during this time because I was marching in the streets protesting Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
I made the news, and when I went to work the next day, Kaiser as a Urology Technician, folks were commenting that they saw me on television.