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Cory McAbee is a fascinating character (actor), film maker and songwriter. He fronts the Billy Nayer Show and wrote, directed, and starred in a cult classic, The American Astronaut. He has a new website chock full of entertaining items.

Reno, is McAbee’s witty, funky and totally brilliant tiny film geared toward smartphone viewing. (Sundance provided support for a number of artists to create tiny film shorts, which are all available through the link)

Here is a description of Reno from McAbee’s website: “To create a “mobile film” McAbee chose three styles that people were already used to seeing on small screens: still images from digital cameras, bodega security monitors and video loops. The subject for the film was a singing cowboy bragging about his travels through Nevada on a Honda 50 to a store security camera. The Cowboy (McAbee) performed a dance that was captured from four different angles and then edited together as one dance performed by four characters.”

Watch Reno.

For a worthy field trip in San Francisco, head to North Beach, and check out one of my favorite spaces in any city, Aria, located at 1522 Grant. Bill Haskell, longtime proprietor, lives part time in Paris, so his store is often closed (you’ll still get a sense of Bill’s specialized taste from his window display). When he is in town, his large storefront overflows with exotic ephemera, antiques, objects, and art that he ships back from flea markets and warehouses all over Europe.

Many of my favorite things have come out of this store, from a stainless steel desk, to a 1930’s school room wall map of California. Bill has sold me old prison mugshots from Alcatraz and a random old photo that looks like my former North Beach friend, Nini McCabe, shooting a rifle. Aria is never dull and often fabulous, a curio shop for the visually inclined, where browsing is always welcome. Bill’s struggle to make order out of his eccentric inventory, is definitely performance art.