First pen show (probably)

[Chemyst]

[ethernautrix]

The principal problem with the Bay Area is that it is too perfect. Everyone wants to live there!

Or California in general. It's always been a lure for relocation.

I've discovered that now I prefer less crowded cities, which came as a huge surprise to this big-city girl.

I do miss all the cultural and entertainment offerings (in English) - even browsing bookstores (kindv pointless for me po polsku), but I love the architecture and bike paths and parks in Wrocław, plus the easy access to other parts by train and bike. Just Sunday, my friends and I took the train to Wałbrzych (an hour away), then rode our bikes up and down the mountain to Sokołowsko, then back to Wałbrzych and the train. So much love (it).

BTW, if any of you venture to Wrocław and want a pen meeting or just to meet and get some information about this city, let me know. As long as I'm here (duration always uncertain) , I'll be happy to meet up with pen people.

[calamus]

[AzJon]

Calamus, I fail to see the relevance. Other than your "it was better in the good old days!" malarkey, what point are you trying to make? That there are Homeless in SF? You see the same problem in NY and DC. Hell, you see that in Phoenix, Arizona. Here's an image from Auckland, NZ:

I will also repeat: the homeless in San Francisco are really pretty benign. I had one lady sing me amazing grace as a "thanks" for giving her a couple bucks. Another dude tried to give me his bag of weed because I gave him a $5 for him and his dog. On the scale of homeless people, there are a lot of them, but they really don't bother you that much.


here's one from Ukiah:



Here's Eureka:



Fun fact, I was assaulted in Eureka at a gas station by a dude that that looked mostly normal.

Homeless does not equal dangerous. Especially in a place like SF.

[Jon Szanto]

Calamus, surely you know that this is neither SF-centric nor even California-centric. The growing income inequality in our nation is spinning off these unfortunate stories. Yes, there are junkies and bums and other bad citizens within those populations. SF may have a particularly keen edge to it's problem, with techbros stepping around these people while living lives with resources that are orders of magnitude more than the street person could dream of. That SF has developed in this manner in the last 2 decades is a modern phenomenon and problem... with roots in the past.

LA's homeless situation has exploded. We've even had an uptick of significance in San Diego. Seattle is out of control (another burgeoning tech hub with skyrocketing property values); Portland... I'm sure the list is long and wide and is societal in nature. Does CA, with it's amenable climate and wide spaces prove to be a fertile ground for this situation? I believe that is part of it, but I also believe that this is a nationwide change in economies and social cultures. It will have to be solved in a very large-scale manner. What bothers me is that, along with the skewing of personal economies, we've seen a hardening of hearts in our world, and a drawing back of the very nature of charity toward your fellow citizens. This, too, seems national in scope. Ugly hearts, wanting what they have and not wanting to share. Even old-school "christian charity" has been upended by the malignancy of the mega-churches, with their pastors living multi-million dollar lives.

Difficult times all over. No easy solutions.

[calamus]

I wanted to provide some counterpoint to that uber-romanticized photograph of the stunning, glorious, everyone in the world wants to be here photograph of the bay.

I understand that homelessness is a worldwide problem, that there's something fundamentally wrong with society. I am also well aware that there are no easy answers to how to deal with it, or even to how we got to this point.

It seems to me, and I may be wrong, that the problem is particularly bad in San Francisco. (It's bad in California in general, and LA is off the Richter scale too, but this thread wasn't originally about visiting LA. And BTW, I'm not surprised that someone got assaulted by a "normal-looking" person in Eureka -- despite having a population under 30,000 it's got some big league problems, including one of the highest crime rates in the state.) I don't travel as much as I used to, and things may have gotten as bad elsewhere, perhaps in lots of places, in which case all I can say is, may God have mercy on us all. Because San Francisco is like a nightmare, pretty sunset shots of the bay notwithstanding.

[calamus]

Here's Eureka:



Fun fact, I was assaulted in Eureka at a gas station by a dude that that looked mostly normal.

Homeless does not equal dangerous. Especially in a place like SF.

I lived in Eureka from 2006 to 2014. By the time I moved away from there I'd had the windows of my car smashed in, people defecating in my front yard, and a couple of blocks away from me a 13 year old kid got shot and killed on the local playground. And yet it always seemed like a safe haven when I'd get back from San Francisco on the few occasions that I'd have to go there. And I've encountered grateful and entertaining panhandlers in Eureka; they are not exclusive to San Francisco. And I've encountered some very scary street people in San Francisco too. There's a wide range of types in any population anywhere. Anyway, there's something very cold and hard about San Francisco that I've never encountered anywhere else except for New York. The place just creeps me out.

[calamus]

I wanted to provide some counterpoint to that uber-romanticized photograph of the stunning, glorious, everyone in the world wants to be here photograph of the bay.

Oh, you were making a couterpoint?

I took it as agreement. Everyone literally does want to live in the Bay Area! Houses cannot be built fast enough! Even the most destitute want to live in this area. From billionaires to to the penniless, the Bay Area is the place to be!

Everyone? Literally? Are you delusional, or do you work for their Chamber of Commerce? It's true that a certain sort of person is attracted to the Bay Area, but it's equally true that there are those who find it absolutely repulsive. You literally (and I mean that in the nonfigurative sense) couldn't pay me enough to live there.

[calamus]

Calamus, surely you know that this is neither SF-centric nor even California-centric. The growing income inequality in our nation is spinning off these unfortunate stories. Yes, there are junkies and bums and other bad citizens within those populations. SF may have a particularly keen edge to it's problem, with techbros stepping around these people while living lives with resources that are orders of magnitude more than the street person could dream of. That SF has developed in this manner in the last 2 decades is a modern phenomenon and problem... with roots in the past.

LA's homeless situation has exploded. We've even had an uptick of significance in San Diego. Seattle is out of control (another burgeoning tech hub with skyrocketing property values); Portland... I'm sure the list is long and wide and is societal in nature. Does CA, with it's amenable climate and wide spaces prove to be a fertile ground for this situation? I believe that is part of it, but I also believe that this is a nationwide change in economies and social cultures. It will have to be solved in a very large-scale manner. What bothers me is that, along with the skewing of personal economies, we've seen a hardening of hearts in our world, and a drawing back of the very nature of charity toward your fellow citizens. This, too, seems national in scope. Ugly hearts, wanting what they have and not wanting to share. Even old-school "christian charity" has been upended by the malignancy of the mega-churches, with their pastors living multi-million dollar lives.

Difficult times all over. No easy solutions.

I don't think it's primarily an economic issue, although there's an economic component to it, particularly once people hit the streets. Why they end up there often has other factors at the fore. I knew a physicist in LA who had a great job, nice house, lots of money, and then fell apart when his wife divorced him. He hit the bottle, lost his job, and ended up living under a tarp by a creek in Topanga Canyon. While most of the people on Skid Row aren't former physicists, many of them are, in fact, mentally ill. I think society is sick, perhaps even rotten to the core. Contemporary values that are being shoved at us through the media and elsewhere are rotten. The fundamental building block of society is the family, and the family is under unrelenting attack by the rot, and has become fragmented and incapable of providing the emotional support people -- and especially children -- need to be healthy, well-functioning human beings. To quote Yeats, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."

[Farmboy]

For what it is worth, the pen show really isn’t in San Francisco but it sounds better than Redwood City Pen Show. Just keep it our little secret.

[RWS]

Thank you Farmboy for bringing us back to the pen show.

Now that EoC isn't attending, will I be the only person there?

I am flying in to SF on Thurs 22nd August, staying in the city centre, then leaving on a hired motorbike round northern California on Monday 26th for a week or so. You are all making me think that I may as well cancel the motorbike hire as I won't survive that long. (joke)

Certainly there will be events to make the trip interesting, but who want boring?

I agree about the rise in polarisation in society, we have it here in the UK. Homelessness is increasing, a lot of people are finding it hard to make ends meet. Unfortunately some think this is due to deliberate government policy with their "reform" of the benefits system.

As an elderly neighbour of ours used to say, "I am glad that I am on the way out".

[Chemyst]

I wanted to provide some counterpoint to that uber-romanticized photograph of the stunning, glorious, everyone in the world wants to be here photograph of the bay.

Oh, you were making a couterpoint?

I took it as agreement. Everyone literally does want to live in the Bay Area! Houses cannot be built fast enough! Even the most destitute want to live in this area. From billionaires to to the penniless, the Bay Area is the place to be!

Everyone? Literally? Are you delusional, or do you work for their Chamber of Commerce? It's true that a certain sort of person is attracted to the Bay Area, but it's equally true that there are those who find it absolutely repulsive. You literally (and I mean that in the nonfigurative sense) couldn't pay me enough to live there.

Haha!

Well as you were kind enough to post for all of us, the city is incredibly diverse and the number one problem seems to be how to accommodate everyone who wants to live in this (relatively) small corner of America.

We can argue about whether it is the weather, culture, social safety net, jobs or something else that is the draw, but the main problem with SF in particular and CA in general is that it is so nice that far more people want to live there than can be accommodated at present. That statement seems to be almost universally true, regardless of how much the supply of "good stuff" is increased!

[guyy]

If someone is bothered about economic inequality & injustice, i don't think the show being in Redwood City is going to help.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

While it may be just a shop, the Fook Hing Trading Co. will be my mini pen show. At least I should be able to handle a few modern pens. And if I want to look at fancy stuff I can head down to Aesthetic Bay.

[catbert]

On a tangentially related note:
Want to get drunk and play with rats? San Francisco has your bait

[catbert]

While it may be just a shop, the Fook Hing Trading Co. will be my mini pen show. At least I should be able to handle a few modern pens. And if I want to look at fancy stuff I can head down to Aesthetic Bay.

There is also Overjoyed, though I believe they are moving.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

Thanks for the link. Some decent prices there, and free shipping on orders over SGD$100.

[ethernautrix]

Cities... pens.... It all comes down to what we want and what we can afford, what we're willing to do.

I feel bad for calamus that he's stuck living in a place he despises. Place is important to me -- and sometimes the place changes, or I change (most likely both), and it's a kind of torture feeling stuck.

I'm the type of person who believes that one always has a choice -- to stay or to leave. Not saying at all that it's easy. But when it becomes harder to stay the course than to make the difficult change... that's usually when a person takes action. And sometimes changing directions brings a whole new set of (hooray!) problems. As Tony Millionaire says, "You can't protect yourself."

Anyway... I would encourage all pen people, collectors and users, hobbyists and dabblers, and all in between, plus the curious and the shy, locals and travellers -- attend the SF Pen Show. Attend A pen show, anywhere you can. Give it a try. The SF show, in particular, has been very well received since its latest incarnation (the current team of organizers), and if I would be in the Bay Area at the end of August, I would go without hesitation.

And if you're in Wrocław (again with the invitation), you know... if I'm here (and should be for at least a few more months), I will be happy to meet and talk pens and perhaps tiresomely point out what I find intreesting about this city.

[Empty_of_Clouds]

On a serious note here (stupid taggers notwithstanding)

I've been to shows. Not pens shows, obviously, shows of other things. I doubt a pen show is significantly different from any other kind of hobbyist show.

On a slightly different slant; if I was heavily interested in vintage pens then I most likely would be more enthusiastic to attend. However, as I live in a country where vintage pens are almost non-existent, this aspect of pens is not really a viable direction in which to proceed. So, because vintage pens are a dead end for me*, I must rely on modern pens. These I can find much more readily when I am on my various travels in the Asia-Pacific region.








*having solid, trustworthy connections in other countries would go some way to mitigating the local problem, but such connections have never been forthcoming.

[ethernautrix]

EoC, aren't you going to England on this trip? There are shows (I don't know when, though) and pen clubs or meet-ups.

If locals aren't issuing invitations, perhaps you could "forthcome" a suggestion about meeting, expressing your interest in vintage pens and what kind of information you're seeking.

I know at least a coupla pen vendors in England. Probably Mike Selway would be a good connection, cos he sells mostly vintage. Can't remember off the top of me head where in England, though. He's come to all seven years of Pen Show Poland-- and I consider him (and his wife) a friend.


Ahahaha! I spelled my "me," which is funny, cos that's what I thought as I was writing, and then I thought, no, don't play around, just write "my," and then my inner prankster obviously took control and defied me. Hahaha.