Hausman by Kevin Cyr

Stunningly sunny San Francisco greetings collectors! I'm in California, yet again, with a handful of team 20x200, eagerly anticipating tonight's big event: our Third Annual Collectors Confab at Chronicle Books. Are you in the neighborhood? You're invited! We would be so pleased to see you. Swing by and say hello, would ya? We'll be sipping on some of the area's finest wines, thanks to Cameron Hughes, snacking and chatting with some of our favorite artists and friends from the West Coast from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Even if it's last minute, please RSVP on Facebook or by email. Because no party is complete without favors, we'll make sure you leave with a tote and treats from popchips.

If our paths don't cross tonight, perchance we'll meet at the Web 2.0 Expo tomorrow? At 9:45 in the morning (early!) I'll be sharing the eCommerce Disruptors stage with Charlie Kim of Next Jump and Rebecca Thorman of Alice.com. It's shaping up to be a great week for geeks—today is Star Wars Day! While tomorrow's 20x200 edition will be totally techie-worthy, we have a plethora of prints sure to please the pocket-protector-wearer in us all.

With all these goings on in the next 36 hours, I must keep this introduction short but sweet! Today's edition from Kevin Cyr, Hausman, offers the opportunity to revel in nostalgia. When I first introduced the now-totally-sold-out Koolman and almost gone Berry, I took a little trip back to the New York I grew up in:

Kevin is documenting the here and now, but his work also recalls the New York of another time for me. I grew up here, commuting in from Queens to Stuyvesant High School, back when it was still on East 15th St. The F train took me to 14th St and an L train, very different than today's uncomfortably overpopulated-with-hipsters version, carried me east to First Avenue. That I took the subway each day was a source of major anxiety for my parents, but I loved going to school in the city.

Back then, the L train was rickety and graffiti-covered, and riding the line into Brooklyn was considered an unthinkably risky adventure by the mother of a girl from Queens. "Graffiti is a crime" was the conventional wisdom, and ridding the city of its scourge was the raison d'etre of the day.

While these sentiments still persevere when I'm looking at Kevin's paintings, Hausman makes me long a little for that time when Hostess was of the mostest! Snacking was simple and fun—that food could last in a pantry for eons was novel, not cause for an agricultural-industrial backlash against a major crop from the heartland of America. That these snacks are not considered the tastiest of treats these days is as much a sign of changing times as the absence of graffiti on trains and a much quieter commute to Queens.

Till tomorrow—or if you're anywhere near SF—tonight!