The Blog

SWOON and The Bold Italic have found your SWOON local guys of the day. SWOON is available on both Android and Apple, so it has thousands of faces to browse.

Name: Jihaari Terry

Neighborhood: Oakland, in Adam's Point next to Lake Merritt

Gig: Barista at Cro Cafe in the Temescal Alley, and I also do sales for Job and Boss tote bags

What's your favorite place to pick up women? I would say I'm more of a “girl watcher” looking for awesome outfits. I say something complimentary, like “Nice dress.” Only if they are engaging will I pursue their name and what they are up to. Temescal Alley has a lot of well-dressed babes walking through at any given time.

Where's your go-to date place? I'm really into doing something different every time. I have been to the Piedmont Cemetery after hours. If it's a proper date structure I would have to say Boot and Shoe Service is a dim lit date spot. Great pizzas and dessert. The service there is spot on too. 

Where would you have your last meal on earth? My last meal on earth would have to be near the ocean, maybe as the sun is going down. 

Who's your favorite quintessential local character? There's this 30 something Asian dude named Eugene Lee. He has been banned from Whole Foods for simply rapping too loud. He usually wears all white and rides his single speed around rapping to some headphone beats. I would say he has a pretty awesome flow.  

What would you change about SF? Nothing, SF can do whatever it wants. I moved to Oakland. Actually, what happened to all the graffiti? I swear, I used to love driving from the Bay Bridge and seeing all the roofs look so colorful. Now it's just gray and brown and tan and white buff with an occasional mural. Dear SF, please do more art outside, illegally. 

What are you up to these days? Well, I used to do art shows and throw roller discos in SF. I just finished curating a show at Oakland Surf Club. Now I'm working with my business partner, Amanda Beane. We are a sales team with a focus on facilitating growth through consulting, marketing, production, and merchandising. We mainly work with small businesses focused in craft-making. I also run a Tumblr called djdadjeans, which is about photography, fashion, and short stories I've written. 

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On Wednesday, May 28 The Bold Italic and 50 of our closest friends decided to celebrate baseball's iconic "Battle of the Bay" between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's in style. On a boat. If that isn't the most epic way to tailgate, we don't know what is. 

We left from Pier 40 on the ever elegant Bay Lady, a 90-foot certified schooner and sailed out past the Bay Bridge and back through McCovey Cove, thanks to the official cruise sponsor, Coors Light. The Bay Lady was stocked with a premium open bar, offering beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages and complimentary hors d'oeuvres.

Following the luxurious boat ride, we headed straight for the game to a block of seats reserved exclusively for Bold Italic guests. 

On May 16, The Bold Italic, Asiento, and Revolights paired for an amazing evening in the MishiPot microhood (aka Mission Gulch, aka the sweet spot between the Mission and Potrero Hill, from Mariposa to 21st Street between Harrison and Hampshire). There was little sun but lots of fun; tons of people came out to the event to celebrate an up and coming neighborhood that has a lot to offer. 

NoisePop hosted an open house at its headquarters with beer, music, and deals on amazing music-related merchandise. Then right around the corner at Blowfish Sushi, NoisePop and The Bay Bridged hosted DJs to celebrate the upcoming Phono del Sol party on July 13. 

If guests were still hungry after filling up on sushi, they could head over to the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen for special grilled cheese sliders and a pint for just $10. 

Inner Mission served complimentary libations from SPICED, as well as a DJ and a showcase of Android Jones' curated art. The NWBLK offered snacks and CCA's Thesis Art show. Heath Ceramics hosted a mini trunk show featuring artist Julia Turner and Mat Dick. 

When it was time for dessert, Charles' Chocolates offered samples and the Coffee Bar hosted a Home Frys game night. Adventurous Sports had free snowboard, ski, and surf lessons on an amazing outdoor sports simulator, and for those looking to relax, In-Symmetry provided free chair massages. 

Asiento offered MishiPot guests $1 off beer, wine, and specialty cocktails, and neighbors KQED had a table with some very cool swag, as well as the Mishipot Passport and postcards. 

Alite hosted a party with all of its awesome camping and outdoor products on display; the crew also provided snacks and refreshments. 

Outside of Alite people played epic games of cornhole. 

Our friends at Mosey created a guide to the Microhood so people could navigate the fun. Guests could fill out one of Mosey's San Francisco madlibs that the company would then send out for them, stamps and all. 

Photo by Talia Pines.

Photo by Talia Pines.

All other photos by Taylor Reid. 

Photo by Borja Laullon

Ever since I graduated from college I've held down a series of internships, none of which have actually progressed into a real life job. It's been pretty frustrating, and while I know that I should be grateful that I have a job at all (two, actually) I've considered more than once leaving the Bay Area and trying my prospects somewhere else. 

So imagine my surprise when in a recent list released by Forbes, San Francisco was named the best city to get a job in 2013.

Forbes took into account short, medium, and long-term employment performance for this list, as well as both growth and momentum (determining whether growth is slowing or accelerating). The publication also noted that areas that have made significant comebacks from dire setbacks often rank well. 

Nowhere is this last point more the case than in the Bay Area, where over the last year, employment in San Francisco expanded a remarkable 4.1%, and is up 3.3% since 2008. Most of these new jobs have been in America's two big boom sectors: tech and energy. 

"A decade ago, the San Francisco area was reeling from the collapse of the last dot-com bubble; the damage was so deep that today it has only 0.6% more jobs than in 2001. Its sharp recent growth is primarily in the information sector, which has expanded a torrid 21.3% since 2009." 

All this information may be true, but I don't see it played out in my daily life among my friends – not a single one of us majored in computer science. In fact, most of my best friends moved to Washington DC straight out of college, where better jobs were seemingly waiting for them with open arms. Of those who did stay in the Bay, quite a few of them still live with their parents or they live in the East Bay, because whatever job they have managed to land in the city still doesn't pay for rent and college loans. 

Perhaps 2013 will be my year and some tech company will take pity on my degrees in English and history, but until that day, I remain skeptical that this really is the best place for starting a career that doesn't have to do with technology or energy. 

Image: queenbeeamy

Trying on clothes sucks, especially if you aren't a twig. I cannot tell you how many times I have plucked an adorable blouse off the racks of a popular store in a size large and been unable to button it over my moderately sized chest. The problem is not the size of my body, it's the construction of the garment. This is an issue I've dealt with my entire life, and I am certainly not the only one.  

In every season of Project Runway there is always one designer who throws a shit fit when the plus-size challenge comes around, which I can only imagine is a feeling shared throughout the industry. The number of Americans categorized as obese is growing, and this is an issue that needs to be addressed, however the clothing industry and its refusal to accept that most women aren't runway models also needs attention. 

Refinery29 posted that when Cornell Apparel Design sophomores Brandon Wen and Laura Zwanziger began working on their final class presentation, they made an interesting discovery regarding clothing for larger ladies. They found that when designing for plus-size women, the industry typically creates a prototype and then increases the garment to scale, making for ill fitting clothing that's big in all the wrong places. Wen and Zwanziger realized that even if they wanted to create well designed women's lines in all sizes, they were limited in their resources. They also found that plus-sized mannequins representing real women don't exist, so the students decided to create their own.