Planet Iron Blogger SF

This weekend we ate at Fable SF and saw some documentaries for DocFest. The documentaries we saw were fantastic and I really enjoyed them. I always like going to the Roxie in general. In fact I just found out that they will be showing the Utena movie next month. And I might have to go … Continue reading "DocFest"

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As another big move comes to an end, it’s time to figure out where all the art goes. I’ve collected a lot of small paintings and sculptures over the years, so this process always fills me with nostalgia for the San Francisco artists I’ve met along the way. None hit me harder than these two paintings by Pete “Peet” Lum.

I think this is the fifth home where I’ve hung these two paintings over the past twenty years. Every time I unpack them, I end up thinking about Peet and that era of San Francisco all over again.

Peet was a fixture of the San Francisco art scene in the mid-2000s. He played drums with the Human Beans, painted graffiti as “Goonies”, and could regularly be found selling his paintings on sidewalks around the Mission District. His paintings often featured cassette tapes, clouds, telephone poles, and whimsical phrases like “The city is my sweetheart” or “We never sleep”. He frequently used found objects, like 2x4s and chunks of wood from construction sites, and kept his palette limited to 3 colors at a time.

photo by HabitForming

His pieces were incredibly cheap, probably ranging from $5-$50, which was perfect for broke-ass artists like myself who loved his work but didn’t have much to offer for it. Peet Lum wasn’t necessarily a famous artist, but if you lived in the Mission around 2005–2006, there’s a very good chance you have one of his paintings hanging somewhere in your home.

photo by Zachary Morriss photo by Rio Coffelt Roth-Barreiro photo by Maya Greven photo by Eddie Coddel

When he wasn’t selling paintings, Peet was tagging the city with two recurring characters: a Pac-Man-style ghost with spiraled eyes and a melancholy little bear with a fang hanging out and a heart on its chest. His graffiti name was “Goonies,” though he rarely needed to write it. The characters, along with short phrases lifted from his paintings, were recognizable enough on their own.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve described Peet’s work to friends only to hear, “Oh yeah, I had one of his paintings. Whatever happened to that guy?” Sadly, Peet passed away on May 25th, 2006.

Photo by Petalum

Peet’s art had a huge influence on me, but I didn’t know him personally. Our bands played a few shows together, and I’d chat with him whenever I ran into him on the street, but we never really hung out beyond that. I loved his characters, his phrases, and the clean, crisp lines in his work, but mostly I loved how much Peet cared about this city.

San Francisco’s art scene in the 2000s felt so full of energy and possibility. There was amazing art and music everywhere, and the city still felt affordable enough for weird little scenes like this to thrive.

Whenever I see Peet’s work, I’m immediately transported back to my early days in this city and how exciting it all was.

If you have a story about Peet, or photos you think I should include in this post, you can leave a comment below or email me at doc@docpop.org. And if you have any of Peet’s old work laying around, I’d love to add it to my collection. I’m still broke, but maybe we could trade stories or yo-yos

The post “The City Is My Sweetheart”: Remembering the Art of Peet Lum appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

In the annals of post-talk-show-cancellation stunts, Stephen Colbert hosting an hour-long episode of a Michigan public access show might be my new favorite. Jack White serves as the “volunteer musical director,” playing the perfect straight man to Colbert’s silly schtick and the episode is full of other great cameos that I won’t spoil here.

The whole episode is charming, chaotic, and incredibly fun to watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTXB5uT_C4

I’m excited to see whatever Stephen does next, especially if it involves a tour of public access TV shows across the country.

And since I couldn’t find a more graceful place to put this: fuck Brendan Carr and Trump for pushing Colbert off the air because their fragile egos couldn’t take a joke. The right loves to pretend they are defenders of free speech… up until someone criticizes them. Then they use the full power of the state to censor their opponents, while bragging about it.

The post Stephen Colbert’s Best Post-Cancellation Stunt Yet appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

We recently switched to a different (larger) popcorn kernel, and I didn’t account for this when measuring it out by eye. These popcorns popped up much larger than the old ones, and the volume was so great that they lifted the lid off the pot. They could not be contained!

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After seeing a few cool Instagram videos about it, I decided to try out Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (aka RSVP) to see how well it worked for me. Mostly I was excited to try out John Decebal’s RSVP Nano app for ESP32-S3 microcontrollers. These devices are around $30 each and John’s app is totally free.

Exploring the world of Rapid Serial Visual Presentation via the RSVP Nano app on an ESP32 microcontroller.
Currently testing it out with @charliejane's "All The Birds In The Sky". #RSVP

— Doctor M. Popular (@docpop) 2026-05-17T01:36:07.443Z

RSVP is a method of presenting eBooks that doesn’t require the reader to move their eyes much. Text is displayed one word at a time, and you can control how fast it appears. Some people use this method to improve their reading speed, but I just thought it sounded fun to try.

It’s like a teleprompter for ebooks!

There are several free RSVP apps for mobile and the web that you can use to try this method out. I don’t have any specific recommendations yet, but you could copy the text from this post and try reading it in something like ReadRSVP to get a feel for the technique.

If you want to give RSVP Nano a try on your ESP32-S3 device, here’s what you’ll need:

Supported file types: EPUB, TXT, Markdown, HTML
Hardware: ESP32-S3 device + SD card (32GB or smaller)
Software: Chrome or Edge (for the web flasher)

Installing RSVP Nano was surprisingly easy thanks to John’s web flasher (Chrome or Edge required). I hooked my microcontroller up to Wi-Fi for over-the-air updates, and this thing is already packed with features.

I’m currently testing it out with Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky. If you try it out, let me know your thoughts below.

If you’re interested in buying one of these ESP32-32 microcontrollers, consider using John’s affiliate link to help support his work-> https://www.waveshare.com/esp32-s3-touch-lcd-3.49.htm?&aff_id=153227

I’d also recommend giving John a follow on Instagram to see what cool new features he’s working on now.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by John Decebal (@johndecebal)

The post Reading eBooks with RSVP Nano appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

We have reached a level of stability in the process where we can do things like have board game night again! I also walked to the library and found a cool book about textiles. It is like I am becoming myself again.

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I took the week off to focus on unpacking and organizing, and so I diligently cooked every random thing I could think of in order to avoid unpacking and organizing. I made pelmeni, using Max Miller’s recipe I made Schmoo Torte And, since schmoo torte calls for twelve (12) egg whites, I had twelve egg … Continue reading "Many Treats"

Mike Monteiro and I met up at Dynamo a few weeks ago to catch up and eat some Fernet-flavored donuts. We had a great chat and he even gave me a copy of his newest book, How to Die (And Other Stories). I’ve been carrying it around with me ever since.

This is partly because we are mid-move and all of my other books are in boxes, but it’s mostly because I enjoy Mike’s writing so much. I honestly don’t read as many books as I’d like to these days, but this one is such a fun read that I can’t put it down.

How To Die is a collection of beautiful, sarcastic, and funny essays about everyday life. Each chapter starts with a simple question like “How to wash the dishes” or “How to read a book”, but the answers always are far more thoughtful and interesting than you’d expect. It’s less like an advice book, and more like sharing stories over coffee (or donuts).

Mike has been answering reader-submitted questions like these in his weekly newsletter for years, and this book collects many of those, but I highly recommend it book form even if you’ve already subscribed to his weekly rambling.

You can grab How to Die (And Other Stories) as either a hardcover or an ebook.

I can’t recommend it enough.

If you happen to be in San Francisco on May 11th, you should check out Mike’s event at Booksmith with special guest Annalee Newitz.

The post “How To Die (and Other Stories)” by Mike Monteiro appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

Today I stumbled on this insane music video for “Bubble” by Yorushika, and I fell in love with it. Within the first five seconds, a man finds himself in a chair in a hotel room. As he tries to figure out where he is, a stranger in a dark trench coat bursts in and shoots him. He dies… only to find himself once again sitting in the same chair, in the same hotel room.

As a jazzy guitar riff plays, this time loop repeats over and over as the man desperately tries to escape his fate. Watch the video here:

It’s perfect, absolutely perfect.

The best part of “Bubble” is that it reminds me of a choose-your-own-adventure-style comic by Jason Shiga. In “Knock Knock,” you find yourself in a similar time loop. Waking up in a bedroom with a few seconds to evade being murdered by a stranger for some unknown reason. You can try to hide under the bed, escape through a window, or fight back. There are hundreds of ways to die in “Knock Knock,” and about half of them show up in “Bubble,” too.

The post One of the Coolest Music Videos I’ve Ever Seen: A Brutal Time Loop Done Right appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

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We took the weekend off from moving stuff to just relax. We turned in the keys to the old place on Thursday, and now all that remains is to organize and unpack. And there is no longer a time crunch on any moving stuff. So I think it is important to just relax for at … Continue reading "Moved in, weekend off"

The San Francisco Bay Area Bench Collective is an activist group that installs benches at public bus stops. A pretty awesome task, if you think about it. The benches are usually installed with a brown coat of paint, but some of them have been getting more decorative lately.

Like this jazzy bench at the corner of Mission and Valencia.

Or this cosmic bench on Telegraph in Oakland.

Or my favorite new bench at the corner of 18th and Mission.

That last piece was created by Noah Peacock. He did the mural on the smoke shop there, and when the bench was added in front, Noah must have decided to work it into the final piece. It looks great.

As a note, I didn’t want to bother folks who were waiting for the bus, so I waited until the benches were empty before taking my photos. So imagine these same benches, but with your friends and neighbors using them.

The post The Art of Bus Stop Benches in San Francisco appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

For months now, I have been obsessed with the idea of making a tiramisu once we were moved into the new place. I couldn’t tell you why. It just really captivated my mind. Well, this weekend, I finally made that happen. And it was everything I dreamed of.

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We moved all our stuff over yesterday and it was exhausting and terrible but. We are here now! And last night was the first night we spent at the new place. I am so excited about our new home. The first thing I cooked on our new stovetop was popcorn. As we sat down at … Continue reading "Meal Milestones"

We moved into our new place on 16th and Julian Ave, and I haven’t had time to install the curtains yet. So when the sun came out this morning at 6:30 AM, I was up with it. I decided to check out some new street art in the alleys and streets around us, starting with our own back alley, which seemed to have a ton of fresh paint.

Then I walked down Erie St, which was filled with awesome new pieces.

I headed back to 18th and Mission, a popular graffiti spot that is frequently covered with new pieces.

And I wrapped up my walk with a stroll through Clarion Alley.

The post Fresh new Art In New Hood appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

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April 18 is the Big Move Day, and life is hectic due to this. But also, we are getting excited for being in the new neighborhood And the SF Public Library has been doing a ton of really cool events at its main branch lately. Like last night, when it had the mobile gamelan there!

From the ATA’s description of the night:

Fine-tuning through the ultra-rich ether, we have discovered some, uh, “special” frequencies that ‘charm’, and re-animate concepts of contemporary A/V installation/performance, with jolts of juice both natural and ‘super’. Mission whiz Josh Ellingson marvels all with demos of his current works – thee eye-popping Pepper’s Ghost, as well as his re-wiring of cult director Sid Davis‘ Age 13. Anchoring the second half is a co-hit that threatens to crack through the ‘Quantum Consensus’: the US premiere of Riar Rizaldi‘s Tellurian Drama, a 20-min anomaly that asks way more that it answers, on the uses and possible abuses of an obscure Malabar Radio Antenna, on the island of Java in the Indonesian archipelago during the Dutch colonial period. Berlin skeptic Thorsten Fleisch contributes Astrogolem, his digital hypothesis on a time-traveling Nikolai Tesla, while Craig Baldwin shares his own revelations from his speculative history Spectres of the Spectrum (exc). PLUS Piercing the Unknown, Hippies High on Alpha, Clara Rockmore’s Theremin, and other inquiries into novel pop-music forms flowing from those magickal waves of electricity! $13

The post Joshua Ellingson demoing Pepper’s Ghost Illusions at Artist’s Television Access in SF appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

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We have a couch and fiber internet now. Big accomplishments.

After living in San Francisco’s Mission District for 20 years, I’m excited to say that my partner and I have bought our first place! It’s the second floor condo in a 120 year old building on 16th Street near Valencia.

The post We bought A Place In The Mission! appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

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Doc and I have been packing and sorting through our things into “keep” vs “donate” vs “throw away” piles. I look over at Doc’s “donate” pile, and I see Picard socks and a Chewbacca shirt. This just struck me as incredibly whimsical.

I’m hosting two fun events in San Francisco this April. Both are free, in the Mission District, and open to everyone.

Then the SF Yo-Yo Club is happening on Saturday April 11th at 826 Valencia from 2-5pm. This is also a recurring event that happens on the second Saturday of each month at that same time and location.

The Cartoonist Conspiracy of San Francisco is our monthly comic jam. It’s an event for artists to come and collaborate on a jam comic together, so bring a pen and be ready to draw with strangers. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month at Finjan Qahwa Cafe from 7-9pm. That’s April 14th.

The post More Nerdy Events in San Francisco In April appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

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Ever since I got Doc mutton for his birthday last time, he has wanted it again! And so, this year, more mutton! I also made him medovik for his cake Admittedly I made it because it is my favorite cake. But he liked it too, so it worked out!

Of course, you can’t spell Matt Spitz without AI.

I did some Cloudfront, Route 53, and ACM gymnastics, and now the default domain name for this website is mttsptz.ai. All of the links from mattspitz.me that my millions of followers have bookmarked still work – they’ll just redirect here.

Welcome to the new revolution, where domain names cost $80/year for a dad joke. It’s worth every penny.

I’m back from a short vacation in West Marin where we kayaked across Tomales Bay and camped in a mellow site along the beach. Along the way we spotted tule elk, elephant seals, otters, deer, bioluminescent sea-creatures, and a juvenile gray whale.

I brought a fine-point Sharpie and a small sketchbook and kept a tiny travel journal to capture the trip.

and here’s a pdf version

The post Sketches from Tomales Bay appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

This weekend I went to a route setting workshop at the gym, which was a lot of fun! We talked about how to think about setting routes and how to get people to do the beta you want on your climb. Then at the end we all collaboratively set a beginner-friendly traverse and talked about … Continue reading "Route Setting Workshop"

I always love watching Rei Iwakura’s yo-yo videos. They’re full of creativity and constantly push the boundaries of what’s possible with a yo-yo. His newest video, an experiment combining helium balloons with yo-yoing, is no exception.

I was so inspired by this piece, that I even made some art about it.

The post Rei’s Yo-Yo Balloon Experiment appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

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Due to stress in life generally, and also due to not having taken a vacation in quite some time, we went to West Marin to go kayaking and camping around Tomales Bay. We arrived a couple days early, however, to just relax at a hotel on the bay so we didn’t have to jump right … Continue reading "Mini Vacation"

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New posters have appeared on Mission Street calling out Google and OpenAI over their business with the Department of War and ICE.

The group behind these posters, We Will Not Be Divided, claim to be current employees who are concerned their work will be used “for domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing people without human oversight”.

Last week I wrote about a series of posters going up in these same spaces that criticized Elon Musk’s Grok AI for generating sexual images, revenge porn, and CSAM. I still don’t know who posted those, but I don’t think it’s the same group.

The post Posters From Tech Workers Criticize Google and OpenAI’s Work With the Military and ICE appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

I’m hosting two fun events in San Francisco next week. Both are free, in the Mission District, and open to everyone.

The Cartoonist Conspiracy of San Francisco is our monthly comic jam. It’s an event for artists to come and collaborate on a jam comic together, so bring a pen and be ready to draw with strangers. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month at Finjan Qahwa Cafe from 7-9pm. That’s March 10th.

Then the SF Yo-Yo Club is happening on Saturday March 14th at 826 Valencia from 2-5pm. This is also a recurring event that happens on the second Saturday of each month at that same time and location.

The post Nerdy Events in San Francisco Next Week appeared first on Doc Pop's Weblog.

Today I made a somewhat experimental (for me) dessert – I made cashew cream, and used that to make a very rich chia seed pudding (instead of using milk, etc). I also made a mousse with chocolate and coconut milk. I then layered these and added some crumbles (I had leftover from making medovik) and … Continue reading "Nutty Dessert"