Journal of Alta California Fall 2018

In bird guides, the custom is to use illustrations for each species. The reasoning is that a photograph is a picture of one individual bird, but the goal is to present the abstract ideal, a platonic bird that is the essence of, say, the red-tailed hawk. I think cartoons have the same secret power to escape the separate flaws of individuals, and so reveal the universal awkwardness and occasional folly of existence. The author James Joyce argued that comedy was a higher art form than tragedy — where it was too easy to provoke tears — whereas great comedy offered the shock of recognition, and thus was more transcendent. In planning Alta, we knew we needed cartoons. All the legendary magazines with distinct personalities — The New Yorker, Esquire, Playboy…

Alta strives for perfection. Therefore, we offer a reward to readers who spot mistakes in the printed magazine: for example, incorrect dates, misspellings, factual errors, fables disguised as facts, etc. We will pay $10 to the first reader who notifies us — at corrections@altaonline.com — of such an error, subject to our review and confirmation. CORRECTIONS In the story on Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf in our Summer 2018 issue, Alta incorrectly reported the status of Ignacio De La Fuente’s possible mayoral candidacy; he had not yet officially declared his candidacy. Also, our story on the Jazz Bakery misidentified jazz musician Art Pepper’s instrument; he played the alto saxophone.…

We think of San Francisco as a boomtown these days because of its central position in the technology industry, but, of course, it has played that role before, when the Gold Rush began in 1848. Thomas O. Larkin had a unique view of that frenzy — he was the Navy’s agent in San Francisco, overseeing movement of freight in the port, as well as being a successful businessman himself (the city’s Larkin Street is named after him). Before that, Larkin (1802-1858) was the first and only consul, or U.S. representative, to Alta California, the Mexican territory that later became California, Nevada, Utah and other parts of the modern Western U.S. Larkin’s Gold Rush letters to his friends and colleagues tell familiar stories about life amid a financial boom. TO…

Doug Robinson is a professional mountaineer who climbed with each of Yosemite’s “Fab Four” during climbing’s Golden Age in the 1960s. Maryn McKenna is a senior fellow of the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University and the author most recently of “Big Chicken.” Johanna Silver is a James Beard Award-winning writer who writes mostly about plants and people. Her first book is “The Bold Dry Garden: Lessons from the Ruth Bancroft Garden.” Kevin Scanlon is an award-winning photographer who has shot a wide spectrum of subjects for editorial, entertainment and advertising clients.…

Ask someone where the National LGBTQ History Museum is located, and he/she/ they or ze will probably tell you it’s in San Francisco, the birthplace of rainbow flags and free love. That’s not the case. There isn’t a Smithsonian-esque LGBTQ history museum anywhere — yet. Separate conversations are happening in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale and London to establish world-class LGBTQ history museums in those cities. San Francisco is an obvious candidate as well — but the city’s limited real estate stock is proving to be an impediment to the development of an LGTBQ museum, especially for proponents who’d like to see it placed in America’s best-known gay neighborhood: the Castro. A big queer museum in the Castro isn’t an abstract idea — the GLBT Historical…

For just a minute, imagine you want a career as a high-fashion model. You are female or look exceptionally good in women’s clothing. Terrific. You were born no later than 2001. Excellent. You are taller than 5-foot-9 inches but shorter than 6-foot-1. Brilliant. Your limbs are long, your torso is short, your features are symmetrical and crisply defined and your face is structured for photography. Perfect. Your measurements are 34-24-36. Oh. Enjoy being the prettiest girl in your hometown. In general, top-tier fashion work requires models to measure 34 inches around the widest part of their hips. In another time, with another standard of beauty, achieving this measurement would have required a brutally simple directive: “Eat nothing until you reach 30, then retire.” But bone skinny is no longer the…