When it comes to clean energy, a few sexy technologies — solar panels, electric cars — get all the headlines. I blame you for reading public. That’s what you click on!

But the workers of the clean energy transition, especially in the early years, are apt to be boring old technologies nobody writes about, some of which may already be in your home. For example, the rising need for energy storage may be partly answered by … the water heater, that unlovely white cylinder thing in your basement.

The other day, I came across another unlikely hero: the heat pump. (Try to contain your enthusiasm.) It requires a little setup, though.

A close look at what’s required to lower San Francisco’s emissions

Siemens — a big player on both the hardware and software side of the “smart cities” space — has developed a tool for modeling carbon emissions in cities. It allows the company to run scenarios showing how various technologies and practices could reduce emissions. It’s called the City Performance Tool, or CyPT.

Siemens recently approached San Francisco about using CyPT to assess the city’s ambitious sustainability goals. Long term, the city’s carbon emissions are meant to decline 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. (They are already 14.5 percent below 1990 levels.)

Siemens used CyPT to analyze how a bunch of different technologies could contribute to San Francisco’s goals. It ran three scenarios. In the first, it modeled the aggressive but achievable deployment of a whole range of technologies, centered mostly on sustainable transport and buildings. Here they are:

(Siemens)

As you can see, electric cars, car sharing, and congestion charging are the biggies on the transport side. On buildings, home automation and “performance optimization” do the most work.

But this scenario only got Siemens to a 63.4 percent drop in emissions by 2050 — short of what San Francisco needs.

For the second scenario, it modeled carpeting the city with solar panels, to provide a source of electricity cleaner than what the grid provides. With panels on just about every suitable roof, the city could get an additional 776,600,000 kWh/year of carbon-free power. Whatever its other benefits, however, this strategy only secured another 3.6 percent in emission reductions, bringing the total to 67 percent by 2050.

How to get from 67 to 80 percent?

You got it: heat pumps.

A heat pump is a “mechanical-compression cycle refrigeration system” that can serve as both a furnace and an air conditioner (indeed, many air conditioners are just one-way heat pumps). From manufacturer Trane:

Even in the air that seems too cold, heat energy is present. When it’s cold outside a heat pump extracts this outside heat and transfers it inside. When it’s warm outside, it reverses directions and acts like an air conditioner, removing heat from your home.

Because it merely moves, rather than generates heat, it is far more efficient than combustion furnaces.

They key feature for our purposes is that heat pumps run on electricity. When Siemens modeled shifting 80 percent of citywide heat consumption over from natural gas to electric heat pumps, emissions declined another 14 percent, bringing the 2050 total up to just above SF’s goal.

(Siemens)

In fact, “market adoption of electric heat pumps for 80 percent of citywide heat consumption is the single most impactful lever considered in this analysis,” it concluded.

I find this perversely pleasing. In the already boring category of appliances, electric heat pumps may be the most boring. Be honest — every time I write “electric heat pump,” your eyelids droop a bit. But they matter!

(Note: heat pumps work so well for decarbonization in San Francisco because of its clean electricity and mild climate—they won’t have the same effect in areas with dirty and more expensive electricity.)

What heat pumps can teach us

So as not to just have a laugh about heat pumps, let me extract a couple of lessons here.

1) First, this helps illustrate that the bulk of the decarbonization over the next few decades is not going to be accomplished by sexy new technologies with, y’know, carbon nanotubes or whatever. It’s not, fundamentally, going to be tech development work.

Instead, it’s going to involve the more quotidian work of slogging through and reforming the rules, regulations, and incentives offered by various levels of government, so that they align around the deployment of existing clean energy technologies, including the boring ones.

A case study from my own experience: Recently, my wife and I did a bunch of internal work on our house — new plumbing, new insulation, new electrical box, new water heater, and new furnace (and a new kitchen faucet, the one part of the work I actually see day to day).

We still had the old oil furnace installed in the house when it was built in 1957. It was that sickly peach color popular with appliances back then — a real monster. Check it out:

Look at this beauty. DR

I wanted to switch it out for a heat pump. That would have made my house almost fossil fuel-free, since Seattle enjoys very hydro-heavy, low-carbon electricity.

But my utility, Seattle City Light (generally a pretty progressive utility), offers no rebates for air-source heat pumps (only the fancier and more expensive ductless kind). By contrast, it offers substantial rebates for the purchase of an efficient natural gas furnace. [Correction, 10/5/2016: Oops, got that a bit wrong. It’s true that SCL doesn’t offer rebates for air-source heat pumps, but it’s not true that they offer rebates for natgas furnaces — those rebates came through Puget Sound Energy, my gas utility.]

In the end, choosing a heat pump over a natural gas furnace would have cost us $8,000 more, and given that we were already spending into ourselves penury, we just couldn’t do it. It would have paid itself back eventually, but over something like 20 years. Who knows if we’ll be in the house that long?

So I had to pipe another fossil fuel into my house. It was galling. Especially since I live in a temperate climate, perfect for a heat pump.

Making sure that rules and incentives are aligned to promote boring-but-important technologies — that’s the real meat and potatoes of decarbonization in the next decade or two.

2) Without rehashing this all over again, I will say that Siemens’ results line up perfectly with the decarbonization strategy I laid out in a post the other day, namely: Clean up electricity and electrify everything.

That’s what the humble heat pump represents: a way to shift heating and air conditioning from fuel combustion to electricity. It ain’t exciting — you won’t see it on any tech blogs — but it’s important.

(Thanks to @MackayMiller for the tip.)

The post This humble residence equipment could possibly be San Francisco’s secret local weather weapon appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

When it comes to clean energy, a few sexy technologies — solar panels, electric cars — get all the headlines. I blame you for reading public. That’s what you click on!

But the workers of the clean energy transition, especially in the early years, are apt to be boring old technologies nobody writes about, some of which may already be in your home. For example, the rising need for energy storage may be partly answered by … the water heater, that unlovely white cylinder thing in your basement.

The other day, I came across another unlikely hero: the heat pump. (Try to contain your enthusiasm.) It requires a little setup, though.

A close look at what’s required to lower San Francisco’s emissions

Siemens — a big player on both the hardware and software side of the “smart cities” space — has developed a tool for modeling carbon emissions in cities. It allows the company to run scenarios showing how various technologies and practices could reduce emissions. It’s called the City Performance Tool, or CyPT.

Siemens recently approached San Francisco about using CyPT to assess the city’s ambitious sustainability goals. Long term, the city’s carbon emissions are meant to decline 80 percent from 1990 levels by 2050. (They are already 14.5 percent below 1990 levels.)

Siemens used CyPT to analyze how a bunch of different technologies could contribute to San Francisco’s goals. It ran three scenarios. In the first, it modeled the aggressive but achievable deployment of a whole range of technologies, centered mostly on sustainable transport and buildings. Here they are:

(Siemens)

As you can see, electric cars, car sharing, and congestion charging are the biggies on the transport side. On buildings, home automation and “performance optimization” do the most work.

But this scenario only got Siemens to a 63.4 percent drop in emissions by 2050 — short of what San Francisco needs.

For the second scenario, it modeled carpeting the city with solar panels, to provide a source of electricity cleaner than what the grid provides. With panels on just about every suitable roof, the city could get an additional 776,600,000 kWh/year of carbon-free power. Whatever its other benefits, however, this strategy only secured another 3.6 percent in emission reductions, bringing the total to 67 percent by 2050.

How to get from 67 to 80 percent?

You got it: heat pumps.

A heat pump is a “mechanical-compression cycle refrigeration system” that can serve as both a furnace and an air conditioner (indeed, many air conditioners are just one-way heat pumps). From manufacturer Trane:

Even in the air that seems too cold, heat energy is present. When it’s cold outside a heat pump extracts this outside heat and transfers it inside. When it’s warm outside, it reverses directions and acts like an air conditioner, removing heat from your home.

Because it merely moves, rather than generates heat, it is far more efficient than combustion furnaces.

They key feature for our purposes is that heat pumps run on electricity. When Siemens modeled shifting 80 percent of citywide heat consumption over from natural gas to electric heat pumps, emissions declined another 14 percent, bringing the 2050 total up to just above SF’s goal.

(Siemens)

In fact, “market adoption of electric heat pumps for 80 percent of citywide heat consumption is the single most impactful lever considered in this analysis,” it concluded.

I find this perversely pleasing. In the already boring category of appliances, electric heat pumps may be the most boring. Be honest — every time I write “electric heat pump,” your eyelids droop a bit. But they matter!

(Note: heat pumps work so well for decarbonization in San Francisco because of its clean electricity and mild climate—they won’t have the same effect in areas with dirty and more expensive electricity.)

What heat pumps can teach us

So as not to just have a laugh about heat pumps, let me extract a couple of lessons here.

1) First, this helps illustrate that the bulk of the decarbonization over the next few decades is not going to be accomplished by sexy new technologies with, y’know, carbon nanotubes or whatever. It’s not, fundamentally, going to be tech development work.

Instead, it’s going to involve the more quotidian work of slogging through and reforming the rules, regulations, and incentives offered by various levels of government, so that they align around the deployment of existing clean energy technologies, including the boring ones.

A case study from my own experience: Recently, my wife and I did a bunch of internal work on our house — new plumbing, new insulation, new electrical box, new water heater, and new furnace (and a new kitchen faucet, the one part of the work I actually see day to day).

We still had the old oil furnace installed in the house when it was built in 1957. It was that sickly peach color popular with appliances back then — a real monster. Check it out:

Look at this beauty. DR

I wanted to switch it out for a heat pump. That would have made my house almost fossil fuel-free, since Seattle enjoys very hydro-heavy, low-carbon electricity.

But my utility, Seattle City Light (generally a pretty progressive utility), offers no rebates for air-source heat pumps (only the fancier and more expensive ductless kind). By contrast, it offers substantial rebates for the purchase of an efficient natural gas furnace. [Correction, 10/5/2016: Oops, got that a bit wrong. It’s true that SCL doesn’t offer rebates for air-source heat pumps, but it’s not true that they offer rebates for natgas furnaces — those rebates came through Puget Sound Energy, my gas utility.]

In the end, choosing a heat pump over a natural gas furnace would have cost us $8,000 more, and given that we were already spending into ourselves penury, we just couldn’t do it. It would have paid itself back eventually, but over something like 20 years. Who knows if we’ll be in the house that long?

So I had to pipe another fossil fuel into my house. It was galling. Especially since I live in a temperate climate, perfect for a heat pump.

Making sure that rules and incentives are aligned to promote boring-but-important technologies — that’s the real meat and potatoes of decarbonization in the next decade or two.

2) Without rehashing this all over again, I will say that Siemens’ results line up perfectly with the decarbonization strategy I laid out in a post the other day, namely: Clean up electricity and electrify everything.

That’s what the humble heat pump represents: a way to shift heating and air conditioning from fuel combustion to electricity. It ain’t exciting — you won’t see it on any tech blogs — but it’s important.

(Thanks to @MackayMiller for the tip.)

The post This humble house equipment could possibly be San Francisco’s secret local weather weapon appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The Conscious Way Forward is your guide for evaluating life so you can move forward with intentionality -Rebecca Cafiero

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The Conscious Way Forward, released on Amazon February 8, hit #1 bestseller in multiple categories, including business health and stress, and job markets and advice, is an authentic reflection on what life can look like as we go through uncertainty. In celebration, the Kindle version is free on Amazon on Feb 11th.

One year into the pandemic, 10 different women did an honest inventory of their lives as they navigated unprecedented times. They chose to evaluate and evolve, to release obligations and expectations that didn’t serve them, and to focus on what they could control. Their story, The Conscious Way Forward, provides insight on how to design your own way forward: through struggle and uncertainty, and above all, life.

“When uncertainty hits, people have two choices: they can pull over on the shoulder of the road and wait for things to get better. Or, they can move into the fast lane and build opportunity in the chaos. Create certainty in the uncertainty. The Conscious Way Forward is your guide for evaluating life now so you can move forward with intentionality,” – Rebecca CafieroTEDx Speaker, Best Selling Author

The Conscious Way Forward debuts the stories of 10 women, from female entrepreneurs, to business executives, lawyers and doctors. Authors include: Natalie Boese, Pat Del Gavio, Stevie Jones, Michelle King, Talla Kuperman, Lisa Liudr meg mill, Abbie Mirata, Lisa Malia Normanand Stacy Richards.

“This book is a thoughtful, captivating collection of stories that reflect the truth of what it has been like to persevere through the pandemic as a female entrepreneur. With personal success and individual triumph comes a powerful collective ripple effect, and these women are proof. “- Sadie Kay

All book proceeds will be donated to Annie Cannons, a non-profit organization that supports survivors of human trafficking and gender-based violence by providing education to become software engineers.

More information about The Conscious Way Forward can be found here.

SOURCE The Conscious Way Forward

The post It is The Secret Sauce of the Pandemic & Your Instrument For Transferring Ahead, Consciously appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A portable generator can cost up to $ 1,500 to buy new, but if you’re a well-connected punk – a member of Pork Belly, for example – you can probably find a used one for around $ 200.

“We just bought it from this guy who I think uses it to power his things at Burning Man,” says Pork Belly guitarist Nick Esparza. But instead of lugging it into the desert, the members of the garage rock band from San Francisco brought it down the serpentine stairs to the Sutro Baths on Friday evening, July 16, along with all their amps, drums and instruments, children with barbed hair and more spikier jackets followed shortly afterwards, and as the sun went down the music began.

Outdoor shows are not uncommon in San Francisco. While it is technically illegal to perform unamplified music in public without an entertainment permit, the relative lack of venues, especially during the pandemic, has led many musicians to take their music to the streets. Police often turn a blind eye to street musicians, but a noise complaint can trigger a subpoena (or warning in the case of a recent band on the panhandle).

Some punks apply for amplifier permits for their concerts, but that’s a complicated task to say the least. The San Francisco Entertainment Commission launched the free JAM permit program during the pandemic, which allows companies with outdoor permits to incorporate amplified outdoor music. However, this requires a partnership with a local company (or another city permit for events on private properties, terraces, streets, etc.). The pandemic fee exemption does not apply to Golden Gate Park, which is approved through San Francisco Recreation & Parks, or Sutro Baths, which is administered by the National Park Service.

The alternative is to put your gear somewhere where no one will be disturbed and post the details on Instagram (Facebook events have been like that for the last decade).

Crowd in the cave of the Sutro Baths, San Francisco, Friday July 16, 2021.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

There aren’t many places like this in one of the most densely populated cities in the country, but the “cave” in the Sutro Baths – technically a tunnel that was used long ago to carry water from the sea to the now destroyed baths to pump – is one of the most notorious. Given the relative secrecy of these gatherings, it’s hard to find data on how far back these shows go, but even as a high school student in the late 2000s and early 10s, I remember the “cave” was a place for raves and Rock concerts.

Although outdoor shows have an uncomfortable habit of echoing hundreds of feet, it’s almost impossible to hear anything from outside the tunnel. But the real appeal is the feeling of seeing a rock show in a cave. It’s just a tiny thrill to know that you and all of your pals would be completely confused if the thousands of tons of stone gave way right above your head. And its remote location, combined with rumors of ghosts and human sacrifice, give it an almost legendary aura.

“We might go to a cave show a few years ago and it was kind of a DJ set where nobody danced but us,” says Pork Belly drummer Junior Reed. “We all thought that night about how fun it would be to do that at some point, but it seemed kind of far-fetched.”

Decline, from Oceanside, Calif., Will perform at the cave on Friday, July 16, 2021.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

For a short, glorious evening, the Generator Pork Belly opened up that opportunity (although the unruly machine was just collapsing as the last of the evening’s four booked bands began their set). None of the band members even expected anywhere near the reception they found: at least 100 people crowded the cave, not to mention the crowd gathered outside.

Surprise Privilege will perform in front of a mosh pit in Warm Water Cove, San Francisco on July 17, 2021.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

Julian Espinoza, Public Affairs Specialist for the National Park Service, emphasized that there are more suitable locations for shows within the park and referred potential organizers to their web portal.

“While we understand the intent behind people holding unauthorized outdoor concerts in areas of our park, we would like to emphasize that these events are both illegal and harmful to the natural and cultural resources of the park,” Espinoza wrote in one Declaration to SFGATE.

The tunnel measures 153 feet long and at least two-thirds of its length was wrapped like sardines for most of the show. It also has an 8 foot headroom, meaning crowd surfing in this setting is like riding a train through a tunnel. The bulk of the body absorbs so much noise that all of the bands sounded like a blurry bass and feedback when you were more than 9 meters away from them. And if you’re not ready to push your way forward, actually watching the bands is out of the question.

With an open air show like Surprise Privilege’s, it’s a little easier to tell what’s going on.

Surprise Privilege’s Cody Azumi is surfing Warm Water Cove on July 17th, 2021.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

The three in their early twenties in this Richmond District punk band have put together more than a dozen outdoor shows since 2019, including two last weekend: a Saturday show at Dogpatch’s Warm Water Cove (“Toxic Beach” in punk parlance) and a Sunday show Show Show by Hellman Hollow in Golden Gate Park.

Most of these shows were held under the auspices of “S-tshow in the Park,” the name they gave to 10 shows in Golden Gate Park. None of the shows that weekend were technically s-tshows. The Saturday show was organized by local punk zine Gridlock, while the Sunday show was hosted by Twin Peaks Sessions, which stream concerts by singer-songwriters playing on a dramatic rooftop overlooking the city. Without the stifling sound of the cave, the sound at both gigs was loud and clear, but had smaller crowds of a few dozen.

Goof, with members of Surprise Privilege in front of the audience at Golden Gate Park on July 18, 2021.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

Punk is hot among teenagers right now, with rappers like Playboi Carti and TikTok personalities like Jxdn proudly embracing the punk-rock aesthetic, if not its ideology. But Surprise Privilege are no trend jumpers; they take inspiration from local legends.

“I was watching a Green Day documentary before I moved here and they were talking about Gilman Street,” says Cody Azumi of Surprise Privilege, who lived in China for most of his life. “I didn’t know the venue was actually still open.”

Jake Kaspari from Addalemon from Sacramento and Moshers in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco on July 18, 2021.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

The Alternative Music Foundation at 924 Gilman, Berkeley, is the longest-running rock venue for all ages in the Bay Area. Founded in 1986 by rock writer Tim Yohannan, The Gilman, as it is known for short, was the springboard for the punk revival of the 90s that brought the world to Green Day, Operation Ivy, Rancid, The Offspring and countless other bands.

Bored with the relatively boring music scene at Presidio’s Bay School, Azumi and his friend Joey Silberman went to Gilman shows and soon formed their own band. Surprise Privilege played its first show at Gilman in July 2019.

But the duo soon realized that appearances weren’t always guaranteed. Big venues like Rickshaw Stop completely turned them down while the longtime Sunset venue, Honey Hive Gallery completely forgot they booked it, resulting in the band heading to a closed club, they said.

“Nobody would book us,” says Silberman. “So I bought the generator and thought, ‘Why don’t we just play for our friends?'”

Editor’s Note: This article was updated on July 26th at 3:50 pm with a statement from the National Park Service. Additional clarification from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission regarding the approval was added on July 30th at 3:30 pm.

Daniel Bromfield is a San Francisco born and raised writer and musician. From 2010 to 2013 he ran the SF Rebirth Blog and his work has appeared in Pitchfork, 48 Hills, The Bold Italic, Resident Advisor and more.

A guitar rests on the Surprise Privilege car in Golden Gate Park on July 18, 2021.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

Reject takes place on July 16, 2021 in the cave of Sutro Baths.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

Downtown San Francisco skyline as viewed from Warm Water Cove on July 17, 2021.

Lucas Thornton / Special on SFGATE

The post I went to 3 secret San Francisco live shows in a single weekend appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Far from being practically perfect in every way, Julie Andrews once put a bumper sticker on her car that said, “Mary Poppins is a junkie.”

It was a joking, failed attempt to banish the sugary reputation she had for the role – but if she’d actually told the truth behind the classic movie, she might have made it.

The actress shocked the kids in the film with her cursing and smoking on set – while co-star Dick Van Dyke was an alcoholic who struggled with suicidal thoughts while dancing around singing “Chim Chim Cher-ee.”

Meanwhile, the writer of the original Poppins novels was at war with the film’s producer, Walt Disney, obsessed with the occult, pursued by allegations of racism, and accused of ruining her adopted son’s life.

Matthew Garber, who played the cheerful young Michael Banks in the 1964 box office hit, later tragically died at the age of 21 after contracting hepatitis in India.

Despite all of this, the film remains a popular family favorite – and a sequel, “Mary Poppins Returns,” which began on December 21st with Emily Blunt as the bag-carrying nanny in the lead role.

Karen Dotrice, now 63, who played the young Jane Banks in the first film, is not surprised at his esteemed status. She says that despite what was going on backstage, the entire cast realized they were involved in something special.

(Clockwise from top left) Dick Van Dyke, Julie Andrews, Matthew Garber and Karen Dotrice in “Mary Poppins”Walt Disney Studios

She said, “We felt like one big family and we all had some fun together that felt really magical.”

But she still remembers her shock as an eight-year-old when she saw Andrews, then 28, in full Edwardian nanny outfit – having a cigarette and exchanging blue language with the crew.

Dotrice added, “There was a curse. Julie Andrews smoked on the set. It was a very real 1960s set, I can tell you that. At first they were polite to minors, but that was soon over. “

Van Dyke has admitted that by the time he played chimney sweep Bert, he was an alcoholic and would show up for shootings the night before.

The actor said, “I would go to work with a terrible hangover, which is really tough when I dance.”

Van Dyke, 37 at the time of filming and now 92, also revealed that alcohol led him into deep depression, revealing, “I’ve been in big trouble, you are becoming suicidal and you think you just can’t move on.”

For the most notorious part of his performance, the Cockney voice, which is still cited as the worst accent in the history of cinema, he does not blame the alcohol.

He blames Andrews for this.

He once stated, “I was working with a cast of almost all of the British and neither Julie nor anyone else said, ‘You know, you should be working on that accent.'”

Van Dyke’s accent is widely considered to be one of the worst in film history.Walt Disney Studios

In the meantime, he was aware that PL Travers – the author of the Poppins books – was not happy with the cast of himself or his co-star.

He said, “She hated Julie and she hated me.”

In fact, as described in the 2013 film about the making of Saving Mr. Banks, Travers hated pretty much anything to do with the five-Academy Award-winning adaptation.

For 20 years she’d sent Walt Disney to packing every time he tried to buy the rights to her stories – and when she finally gave in, she bitterly regretted it.

Her own Poppins character, who first appeared in a novel in 1934, was cold, intimidating, and prone to utterances with “a superior sniff.”

And yet the nanny was here, cute, smiling, in love and dancing with animated penguins. She took it as an insult.

After the premiere, Travers told Walt Disney, “All the animation has to go,” without realizing it was too late. The Mughal corrected her and said, “Pamela, the boat has sailed.”

Travers retaliated by refusing permission to do a sequel – allegedly even in her will that “no Americans should ever be allowed to work on a Poppins project again.”

PL Travers apparently hated the scene in which Van Dyke danced with animated penguins.Walt Disney Studios

She died in 1996 – and Disney is now behind the new film with the approval of her estate.

Ironically, the movie was a passion for Disney and the books a passion for Travers for the same reason – troubled childhood.

Dotrice told The Sun, “PL Travers’ father was angry with her. Walt Disney had a terrible relationship with his father. ”The Mughal saw the story as a fantasy of children turning a cruel father – like his own – into a loving one.

As a result, he changed the character of Mr. Banks from the kind in the books to cold and aloof.

And his painful memories of being an unhappy kid – forced to get up at 4:30 am to deliver newspapers in the snow – also made him determined to treat the kid stars on Poppins well.

Dotrice recalled, “I learned why Uncle Walt was so nice to me and my family because he didn’t want another 8-year-old to have the s-y experiences that he had.”

Travers had seen the character of Mr. Banks as an opportunity to bring back the bank manager father she idolized, but who had died of alcoholism at the age of 7.

She was horrified that he was now being made the villain.

Travers was born Helen Goff in the wilds of Queensland, Australia in 1899 and moved to England at the age of 25.

Walt Disney Studios

And although she created the thoroughly right character of Mary Poppins, her life was very unconventional by the standards of the time.

She enjoyed romantic relationships with both men and women.

For 10 years she lived with Madge Burnand, the daughter of the editor of Punch – who once took a picture of Travers frolicking topless on an Italian beach.

Travers later fell in love with the poet Francis McNamara, an Irish man who once told the author: “Mary Poppins with her cool, green core of sex has captivated me forever.”

Single again at the age of 40, Travers adopted a young boy named Camillus from a large, troubled family in Ireland.

What Camillus didn’t find out until he was 17 was that he had a twin brother, Anthony, whom Travers didn’t want to care for, even though his parents begged them to take them both with him.

When he learned the truth, he drank with his siblings, a habit that would develop into debilitating alcoholism for both of them.

Camillus died in 2011 as a result of his addiction.

The boys’ eldest brother, Joseph Hone, said, “I don’t think Travers was fit to raise children.”

She had reportedly chosen Camillus as her twin on the advice of her astrologer – and later became increasingly obsessed with the stars, the occult, and mysticism.

Walt Disney Studios

The popularity of Travers’ books faded over the years as racism in them became unacceptable – especially the shocking descriptions of black Americans.

In contrast, those involved in the film continue to thrive on their association with the smash hit.

Andrews, 83 – a stage star when she won the role – caused a sensation and landed an Academy Award for Best Actress and her role in The Sound Of Music. She is a lady now.

Van Dyke overcame his demons and became one of the most recognizable faces on US television.

Dotrice continued playing until the age of 24, then decided, “I’d rather just get married and become a mother and that’s it.”

Tragically, Garber, who played her brother Michael, only lived to be 21 years old.

Despite rumors that drugs played a role in contracting the hepatitis that killed him after a trip to India, his family insisted it was caused by eating bad meat.

He and Dotrice made a perfect team and worked on other films together as kids.

She said, “We had a great childhood. We shot three films together. “

“I wish he were here to make those comments too.”

The post The key darkish aspect to the basic ‘Mary Poppins’ appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Sound is the only color in the pitch-dark concert room of the auditorium. Since 1975 this theater on Bush Street in Polk Gulch has been quietly – and sometimes loudly – trying to redefine how San Francisco thinks about music.

The modest performance space looks like a college lecture hall with a modern mid-century hobby room criss-crossed. Speakers are everywhere; The last official count was 176. Speakers of various shapes and sizes dangle from the ceiling like stalactites. They are also hidden under bars in the floor and hidden in the walls. Audium has been using the same chairs, zigzag metal frames with soft red cushions for 46 years. For COVID-19 purposes there are only 11 chairs far apart. I sit down, the lights go dark and then the show starts.

Jazz piano tunes and street shots of San Francisco bounce around the room like ping pong balls from speaker to speaker. The sound of a car engine rumbles under my feet, a recording of a conversation in Union Square whispers off the walls to my left, while xylophone tones swirl overhead. I close my eyes, but the room is so dark that at some point I’ll forget they’re even closed.

Jazz piano tunes and street shots of San Francisco bounce around the room like ping pong balls from speaker to speaker.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATE

“It’s like a movie for your ears,” says Dave Shaff, who manages the space and produces the latest composition, Audium Sound Hour, which premieres on May 6th.

The concept behind Audium was inspired by the experimental music scene in San Francisco in the 1960s. At the time, Shaff’s father Stan was a professional trumpeter. After performing at the Tape Music Center in San Francisco, he began to work with renowned composers such as John Cage and the dance choreographer Anna Halprin. His work with Halprin inspired him to think about moving the sound of his trumpet the way dancers move their bodies and treating music as if it were a spatial sculpture.

Together with co-founder Doug McEachern, Stan Shaff designed an immersive loudspeaker system with which he can move sounds around the room in real time. Instead of just a wall of stereo sound from left and right, the melodies were now like marionettes on strings that could be inserted into hundreds of places in a room. Shaff and McEachern began performing at the San Francisco Museum of Art (which later became the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) with this philosophy, and then used a National Endowment for the Arts scholarship to convert a former bakery into an audium. Dave’s father Stan is now 92 years old but performed before the pandemic and is currently working on a new composition.

Since 1975, the Audium Theater, hidden on Bush Street in Polk Gulch, has been quietly – and sometimes loudly – trying to redefine how San Francisco thinks about music.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATE

Like most San Francisco venues, the Audium has been closed since the first on-site accommodation ordinance was issued in March 2020. Meanwhile, thanks to a small town grant, they’ve been able to upgrade their HVAC system and reopened for private parties on May 6th. Booking an experience for a group of four people costs $ 100, and each additional guest costs $ 25 (maximum 10 people).

Last year Dave Shaff developed an iPad-based digital control system to replace the old analog mixer. However, for now, Audium’s principles and technologies are largely the same as they were in the 1970s. And that is what makes it such a lovely experience.

Jazz piano tunes and street shots of San Francisco bounce around the room like ping pong balls from speaker to speaker.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATE

Fans of electronic and experimental music, or really anyone who has attended a music festival in the past decade, will be no stranger to installations like Audium. You enter a cave-like room, possibly Van Gogh paintings are projected on the walls. Or sit in the California Academy of Sciences planetarium and stare at a swirl of 3D robotic graphics specially mapped to the contours of the ceiling. A cacophony of synthesized sounds and trippy images. These experiences are always pretty cool, but sometimes just a little too on the nose.

I am sitting in my 46-year-old seat in total darkness and am surrounded by pounding bucket drummers. A skateboarder does a kickflip on my left and a BART train races by on my right. Bass vibrations float through the metal of the chair, giving me a light massage as birds, bells, and timpani drums drip from the stalactites. A free jazz musician finally gets his grand piano when a dissonant piano chord glues all the sounds together.

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Since 1975, the Audium Theater, hidden on Bush Street in Polk Gulch, has been quietly – and sometimes loudly – trying to redefine how San Francisco thinks about music.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATEshow moreShow less

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Jazz piano tunes and street shots of San Francisco bounce around the room like ping pong balls from speaker to speaker.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATEshow moreShow less3of11

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Since 1975, the Audium Theater, hidden on Bush Street in Polk Gulch, has been quietly – and sometimes loudly – trying to redefine how San Francisco thinks about music.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATEshow moreShow less

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Since 1975, the Audium Theater, hidden on Bush Street in Polk Gulch, has been quietly – and sometimes loudly – trying to redefine how San Francisco thinks about music.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATEshow moreShow less6thof11

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Since 1975, the Audium Theater, hidden on Bush Street in Polk Gulch, has been quietly – and sometimes loudly – trying to redefine how San Francisco thinks about music.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATEshow moreShow less

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Dave Shaff, manager of the Audium Theater.

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Since 1975, the Audium Theater, hidden on Bush Street in Polk Gulch, has been quietly – and sometimes loudly – trying to redefine how San Francisco thinks about music.

Mariah Tiffany / Special for SFGATEshow moreShow less11of11

The whole composition feels childlike, and the way the sound moves around the room feels more fluid than mechanical, and is moved by a hand rather than a mouse. The ideas and techniques are nothing new, the same composition could have been played on the opening weekend of the audience, but something about it still sounds fresh today. Simply put, the place just has soul.

The music gets quieter and it now sounds like I’m sitting next to a babbling creek, but maybe the creek is flowing down the sidewalk of Bush Street and ambient shots from quieter parts of San Francisco gently fill the room. I’m still in a trance, not exactly sure how long. When I open my eyes, I notice that the lights have already been turned back on.

The post For 46 years, this soulful oddity has been San Francisco’s best-kept musical secret appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

When it comes to clean energy, some sexy technologies – solar panels, electric cars – are making the headlines. I blame you, the reading audience. Click on it!

But the clean energy transition workhorses, especially in the early years, tend to be boring old technologies that no one writes about, some of which may already be in your home. For example, the increasing demand for energy storage can be partially answered by … the water heater, that unsightly white cylinder thing in your basement.

I recently ran into another unlikely hero: the heat pump. (Try to contain your excitement.) It does take a little setup, however.

A closer look at what it takes to cut emissions in San Francisco

Siemens – a major player on both the hardware and software side of the “Smart Cities” division – has developed a tool for modeling CO2 emissions in cities. It enables the company to run scenarios that show how different technologies and practices can reduce emissions. It’s called the City Performance Tool or CyPT.

Siemens recently reached out to San Francisco to use CyPT to evaluate the city’s ambitious sustainability goals. In the long term, the city’s CO2 emissions are to be reduced by 80 percent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. (They are already 14.5 percent below the 1990 level.)

Siemens used CyPT to analyze how a number of different technologies can contribute to the San Francisco goals. Three scenarios were run. The first part modeled the aggressive but achievable use of a whole range of technologies, mainly focused on sustainable modes of transport and buildings. Here you are:

(Siemens)

As you can see, electric cars, car sharing, and congestion charges are the biggies on the transportation side. In buildings, home automation and “performance optimization” do most of the work.

However, this scenario only brought Siemens a 63.4 percent decrease in emissions by 2050 – just before what San Francisco needs.

For the second scenario, a carpeted city floor was modeled with solar panels to provide a source of electricity that is cleaner than what the electrical grid can provide. With panels on almost any suitable roof, the city could get an additional 776,600,000 kWh / year of carbon-free electricity. Regardless of the other benefits, this strategy only secured a further 3.6 percent in emissions reductions, so that it rose to 67 percent by 2050.

How do I get from 67 to 80 percent?

You got it: heat pumps.

A heat pump is a “mechanical compression cycle refrigeration system” that can function as both an oven and an air conditioner (in fact, many air conditioners are just one-way heat pumps). From manufacturer Trane:

There is heat energy even in air that is too cold. When it is cold outside, a heat pump extracts this external heat and transfers it inside. When it’s warm outside, it reverses direction and acts like an air conditioner that removes heat from your home.

Since it only moves heat, not generating it, it is far more efficient than incinerators.

The main feature for our purposes is that heat pumps run on electricity. When Siemens modeled the shift of 80 percent of citywide heat consumption from natural gas to electric heat pumps, emissions decreased another 14 percent, bringing the total by 2050 to just above the SF target.

(Siemens)

Indeed, “the market introduction of electric heat pumps for 80 percent of urban heat consumption is the most powerful lever considered in this analysis,” he concluded.

I find that perversely pleasing. In the already boring category of appliances, electric heat pumps are possibly the most boring. Be honest – every time I write “electric heat pump” your eyelids droop a little. But they are important!

(Note: heat pumps are so good for decarbonizing San Francisco because of their clean electricity and mild climate. They don’t do the same in areas with dirtier and more expensive electricity.)

What heat pumps can teach us

In order not to just laugh at heat pumps, let me extract a few lessons here.

1) First, it shows that most of the decarbonization in the next few decades cannot be achieved through sexy new technologies with carbon nanotubes or whatever. Basically, it will not be a technical development work.

Instead, it will be the more mundane job of working through and reforming the rules, regulations and incentives offered by different levels of government to align with the adoption of existing clean energy technologies, including the boring ones.

A personal case study: Recently, my wife and I did some internal work on our house – new plumbing, new insulation, new electrical boxes, new water heaters, and new stoves (and a new kitchen faucet, which is part of the job that I actually do See day by day).

We still had the old oil stove installed in the house when it was built in 1957. It was that sickly peach color that was popular with appliances at the time – a real monster. Listen:

Look at this beauty. DR

I wanted to exchange it for a heat pump. That would have made my house almost fossil fuel free since Seattle has very water-heavy, low-carbon electricity.

But my utility, Seattle City Light (a pretty advanced utility in general) doesn’t offer discounts on air source heat pumps (just the fancier and more expensive ductless kind). In contrast, it offers significant discounts for purchasing an efficient natural gas stove. [Correction, 10/5/2016: Oops, got that a bit wrong. It’s true that SCL doesn’t offer rebates for air-source heat pumps, but it’s not true that they offer rebates for natgas furnaces — those rebates came through Puget Sound Energy, my gas utility.]

In the end, choosing a heat pump would have cost us $ 8,000 more than a natural gas stove, and since we were already in dire straits, we just couldn’t do it. It would have paid off at some point, but over about 20 years. Who knows if we’ll be in the house that long?

So I had to add another fossil fuel to my house. It was annoying. Especially since I live in a temperate climate, perfect for a heat pump.

Making sure rules and incentives are aligned to promote boring but important technology – this is the real meat and potatoes of decarbonization for the next decade or two.

2) Without rehashing this again, I’ll say that Siemens’ results fit perfectly with the decarbonization strategy I outlined in a post the other day: clean up electricity and electrify everything.

This is what the humble heat pump is: a way of converting heating and air conditioning from burning fuel to electricity. It’s not exciting – you won’t see it on any tech blog – but it matters.

(Thanks to @MackayMiller for the tip.)

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The post This humble residence equipment could possibly be San Francisco’s secret local weather weapon appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.