late-night

fountain accompaniment.

i (heart) city park

sunday bloody (mary) sunday

If you are in Denver, you really should visit St. Mark's Coffeehouse.

Five out of six rope-and-harness suppliers give it two thumbs up (or, ten thumbs up, as it were)....

summah so far...

From top:

• Berkeley
• Sutter St., birds waiting for the bus
• Euro 08!
• Valencia & Market
• latest commentary

nearby forest fires = bellini early am

North San Francisco, 7am-ish, end of June

shortcut

En route to Fisherman's Wharf, via Fort Mason.

bring it

@ Musée Mécanique (Cue pipe organ music and crazy laughter)

Its worth it to brave the crowds in Fisherman's Wharf to explore this funky museum. Part museum, more arcade, its free to wander through, and you're able to "play" a lot of the games. Some of the machines are games of skill as we're probably most used to, others you put a coin in and watch a scene animate. It's a lot like going through your eccentric old neighbor's basement: very cool and creepy at the same time. You can't help but wonder if some of those machines come alive at night (haven't you seen that movie?)...

Reminiscent of the crazy Girard collection at the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe.

heat wave!

The temp hit the high 70s today in the city, with some significant humidity. Higher temps predicted for tomorrow; what in the world am I going to wear to work?!

Its generally pleasant here, but I have to say I miss Weather.

spwing!

From top: - velvet da vinci - cityscape/morrissey! - (kramer/eraserhead) furniture delivery van @ soma - commuting @ financial district - downtown, construction

"dry"

fancy, soda.

emerging

(Exiting BART at Civic Center)

The last week and a half has found me working furiously on a project, head down, headphones on. Its been a long stretch here at the kitchen table, with much NPR for company. Sadly, it makes for less-then-scintillating blog fodder. Sorry about that! Things are looking up. Soon I'll start venturing out of the house again, and things will become (hopefully) much more interesting here.

hive

Stockton St.

dancing on the jetty*

(*This is one of my favorite songs to run to. Love, love it.)

Started my day with a jog down to Fort Mason, along the water, out and back along a little jetty just north of Ghirardelli Square. The jetty/pier is basically just a winding stretch of concrete, littered with trash, grafitti, and signs prohibiting the catching of Dungeness crab (we saw someone get busted by the Crab Police last week).

It encloses an expanse of water in front of Ghirardelli Square and the maritime museum, and sometimes you'll see (crazy) people swimming laps there. For the most part this morning it was just me and a collection of pigeons and saucy sea gulls. No swimmers, but there were a couple of small sailboats out.

This is a good part of the run. No hills, just straightforward out onto the water. I like the hardness and non-quaintness of the pier. And when you get out to the end, you can look towards the city in one direction:

And towards the GG bridge in the other direction (if you squint you can just make it out in this photo. Its the reddish thing):

And in between there's Alcatraz (which I didn't get a shot of this am), making the 360 view a sort of 'best of.'

**Pls pardon today's image quality: all action shots taken from my trusty little Sanyo phone. !.

under glass

Union Square, lovely Friday afternoon, stopping off for (iced) coffee.

"was it worth it?"

Today is the 5-year anniversary of the war in Iraq, and San Francisco (like other cities) marked the occasion with a day-long series of protests. We woke up this am to a traffic update: a warning against trying to navigate through the financial district due to crowds, protesters and police. And I have to admit I wondered out loud (as the significance of the date didn't occur to me), what are they protesting? (hangs head.)

Arriving downtown shortly after 9, we missed the first big events of the day. I did, however, run across these three guys:

They were lip-synching "Bomb Iran" (to the tune of "Barbara Ann") and other songs, and were totally entertaining, in a jib-jab sort of way. Later on at lunch I wandered down to the "die-in" at Montgomery and Market St., where there were two-dozen people sitting in the intersection, surrounded by easily three- to four- times as many officers. And a brass band (which I *think* was trying to pull off a Rage Against the Machine cover at one point, A for effort...)

More events were planned for this evening throughout the city. J pointed out the protesting he saw was pretty mild; it did seem the police presence was the most stunning part of the day, but we definitely were only on the fringe of things. And of course I left the house this morning without my 'real' camera. You think I'd know better.

its a school night?

We've moved to a new neighborhood, and our commute to/from downtown now generally takes us through North Beach, making our bus ride just a little more interesting (until the novelty wears off, that is). Even on a Tuesday night the bars and restaurants are crowded: people are spilling out on the sidewalks, enjoying dinner/coffee/drinks at outdoor tables under cranked-up heat lamps. It seems North Beach is always on vacation.

(image: Jazz At Pearl's)

and in the distance:

Wonderbread.