Holiday Matinee, the East Village-headquartered creativity blog, gave a much-needed shot to South Park this past Wednesday, July 14th, thanks to Station Tavern and the Whistle Stop hosting their pop-up shop event. Although there was merchandise, this was no vendor fair, but featured artists, a studio, and a non-prof. It was another really cool intervention (the other being Shepard Fairey's street art being erected for MCASD's Viva La Revolucion exhibition) on this sleepy little hamlet that calls Juniper and Fern its main streets and was known to most locals as a part of Golden Hill for a long time. Sure, the idyllic is at times punctuated by beloved 'booty basement's at the Whistle Stop, but this mostly serene neighborhood has emerged as an artsy favorite residential district in the past decade. As South Park, it is still growing into the San Diego consciousness, our disparate neighborhoods benefiting from scene experimentation.
This event, also a stop on Threadless' Everywhere tour (they'll be back for the Con!), had people designing tees whimsically with sharpies in Threadless' Airstream trailer (with Charlie's encouragement!), flicking the wheel spinner at Holiday Matinee and getting a neat online destination on a fortune scroll, and picking out a neighborhood tee at Sezio. Loulou Bijoux sold charming apple slice necklaces, while Yeller showed a selection of artist books (we bought 3!) and laid some great groundwork in promoting their hotly anticipated show "Where We Sleep" at Subtext Gallery. Josh Boston's art hung on the walls of Station Tavern, and left almost everyone with a great, pumped-up feeling. Not to put that energy to waste, most denizens only had to walk around the block to catch Obey Giant at work on their piece.
I had to bounce before Sleepwalking DJs (didn't wanna miss that) and Bob Nanna (of Chicago and Threadless) did their things at the Whistle Stop After-Party (remember that party as the Sleepwalking old school Party? maybe it was all an upgraded coincidence?), I was bummed to have missed my zoo-pal Frank Green play with Greg Gibson.
Holiday Matinee, I request that you strike again! More photos after the jump!
