Two creative shops I’ve got my eye on in 2010, video house Lucky NY and local stationary creator Hello!Lucky, have a common fortune theme in their monikers. It’s reason enough for me, especially when both have inventive sets of business partners and the latter’s production facility is within walking distance of my junior one bedroom. Following the purchase of letterpress valentines, I asked CEO Sabrina Moyle about starting the company after Stanford Business School now that it’s expanded to the UK.
SF: How did you decide to go into business with your sister [Eunice Moyle]? SM: Over my career I’d been focused on trying to help artists become successful in their careers by running a non-profit art gallery and managing grant programs for artists. After I graduated from business school, Eunice expressed interest in starting a letterpress card business with a couple of designer friends. She is the most talented and versatile artist I know, so I jumped on the opportunity to help. Pretty soon, the other two designers decided to pursue other opportunities, and Hello!Lucky became a sister-owned business. It’s been a great decision–we love working together and have complementary skills. more
Readings by young writers from Mission High, Ida B. Wells and other schools will take the stage at local museums starting February 13 through April to share stories about San Francisco adolescence. Writers are paired with local WriterCorps mentors before speaking at the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, Zeum, and (my favorite) the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Youth art will be on display for the free and low-cost events.
In advance of the most recent Skimble iPhone app update, company co-founder Maria Ly talked with Women 2.0 and VidSF about creating the activity tracking platform. She certainly didn’t sit down for the In Conversation series interview at Mission Cliffs, but she did discuss transitioning from a Fortune 500 company to selecting activities for personal tracking, including snowboarding, swimming, running, and yoga. Platform participants note their physical exercise and can share their progress with friends, and it doesn’t take much to understand how the Bay Area with its plethora of weekend warrior has been home to the startup.
I’ll keep the pink links to a minimum, but there are quite a few Valentine’s Week events in SF that deserve consideration. We can get the worst named out of the way first–that being “Singles & Sprinkles” at food community space 18 Reasons on Thursday. The Little Lane art studio will be helping with cookie decoration over Domaine de Montrieux “G-Spot” Vin de Table 2006 (“g” being for grapes, goofball).
Jesse Hawthorne Ficks is planning a two-day tribute to filmmaker John Hughes with three for $10 screenings as part of his “Midnight for Maniacs” series at The Castro Theatre. Non-ironic late ’80s film lovers may find back-to-back “Pretty in Pink” and “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” on Saturday perfectly Cupid-esque.
My neighborhood dance spot Rickshaw Spot will host the SF Bike Coalition’s annual “Love on Wheels” fundraiser on Friday evening (after which sitting in a dark theater may be ideal). Free valet parking will be available for the ’70s-style dating game. Participating cyclists will be quizzed on local destinations and paired for sponsor-covered dates. Bike bachelorettes, fear not: in response to the question “are cyclists better lovers?,” the invitation states:
“Clearly, yes! Cycling women are known to be low-maintenance, more independent, and more fun-loving than women who wear makeup to the gym.” (See the full invite for endurance details.)
Work by ad art buyer-turned-creator Victoria Smith tends to be of the highest quality, and the “Blog It Forward” project starting on Wednesday will likely bring the same attention to detail as her SFGirlByBay site and adoration as her “Keep Calm and Carry On” prints. Through the end of March, personal inspiration posts by design and art bloggers will link to those published previously by the group of 300 participating sites. I’ll be writing on March 16 between posts by Out and About Africa and the local City Sage (among others) and very much looking forward. The endeavor is a good exercise in driving attention to sites outside participants’ most bookmarked (and a great excuse to ponder personal motivation and muses).
One of the best things about the Film Society’s programming–besides the price–is the quality of the presenters on both the filmmaking and festival programming sides. Tonight’s “Thinking Outside the Doc Box” panel at Mezzanine will include discussion about whether character-driven documentaries are the only fund-worthy kind (Richard Saiz, senior programming manager at the Independent Television Service, says they aren’t). Institutional funding sources and alternative documentary structuring are fair game before “Laptop Shop,” the regular peer review series that invites local filmmakers to share their work in progress.
One of the best things about spending last week in the Big Apple–besides coming back to warmer weather and recycling bins–was the chance to learn more about the wine lovers community Cork’d from CEO Lindsay Ronga. The four person team is based in NY, but I know more than a few Bay Area winos and up-and-coming aficionados who might like rating wines or submitting guest commentary on the platform.
Ronga, who worked in finance before affirming her interest as the president of the HBS Wine and Cuisine Society, partnered with Wine Library founder Gary Vaynerchuk to launch the site. The “playground for wine lovers” is run without advertising, and participating wineries pay $1,000 annually to participate. Members are active in making wine tasting and collecting more approachable, and the trust-your-instincts tone is reminiscent of Courtney Cochran’s guidebook “Hip Tastes.” And even for those of us who might consider little about our wine choices beyond color and cost, the discussion section is a good place to bone up before shopping.
In advance of Global Ignite Week, Ms. Carmel Hagen and I are excited to announce the speakers for March 2′s event at Automattic. We hope you can join us for five-minute talks to include achieving enlightenment through nightclubs, a contemporary perspective on marching bands in America, and the opportunity costs involved in modern dating. Tickets may sell out again, but you can get ‘em here to see the following speakers in their Global Ignite finest:
Now that the Winter Music Fest is wrapping, the 12th Independent Film Fest opens Thursday at The Roxie, and not without its share of good-looking features (including Beyond the Pole and Wah Do Dem) and mark-the-calendar-worthy events (a roller disco party at Cellspace on Saturday and a filmmaker coffee date at Four Barrel next weekend, for example). Enough staring at this screen–get yourself to the big one, skates optional.
Ever liked a company more than a Yelp review can express? Triple Pundit alum Ryan Mickle’s Companiesandme might help should you have a story to share about supporting or founding a local organization, and stories by Joie de Vivre’s Chip Conley and Numi Tea’s Reem Rahim about the inspiration for going their own ways are well told in the first person.
I also like the site for its commenting and engagement potential and because it includes conversations about companies whose work is admirable, including Give Something Back, 18 Rabbits, Rickshaw Bagworks, and Tcho Chocolate (full disclosure: the latter two are Ignite Bay Area supporters, but I think their products are notable independently). Nominated companies pay to participate, and this cheerleader of independent Bay Area endeavors looks forward to more digital storytelling–and having a portion of the proceeds fund regional non-profits.
