Seriously

Who would you ...


... rather party with?

City Sidewalks

Concierge let us leave the car with the hotel after we checked out. Went for a walk. Up a couple blocks to the the Ferry Building. Remembered what it used to be like thirty years ago or so, back when there was an elevated freeway casting its shadow over everything. Not a nice neighborhood then, especially after dark. Now it's amazing.

From the old ferry slips, a view of the hill that used to telegraph ship arrivals. Now it's the most unique neighborhood.

A market was on that morning, full of food and happy people. Two, anyway, once we got our curry sausage sandwiches. The sunshine poured through the cool air like honey.

  

Inside the Ferry Building itself, not like its old self. My mother remembers the room where'd they show newsreels while you wait to board. I remember faceless office spaces when the refinery I worked at held a Christmas party. Now an upscale food market, full of people and color.

  

Outside again, the usual. These guys played well, but their harmony was, shall we say, untutored.

A beautiful day for a cruise round the Bay.

And making memories.

  

A Night at the Ballpark

One of my favorite places in the whole world. San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus singing the Anthem.

 

Lincecum lines up a shot and sends it in. Guy is amazing. Won the NL Cy Young last year. Was solid Friday night. Drove in the first run and pitched a complete game and a shutout.

 

View out towards the marina by the park. Infield maintenance during the game.

 

Pretty reflections on evening clouds. A play at the plate.

 

Flags with East Bay clouds behind them. Taking the A's to their last out. (Giants swept the weekend series.)

 

Telegraph Hill Panorama

Lovers of Sal's home pictures will recognize part of the view. Click through for the full version.

Don and his Mom's Excellent Adventure Through Time and Space

I had a fun time with my mom a couple days after Xmas. Fun times together were always rare for us, just because of how time and chance put us together. But I love her and as someone three to the fourth she keeps pretty active and I’m proud of her for that. She’s a docent now and then at the Asian Art Museum in the City and I went with her to check it out. We took BART. The station happened to have sign showing where we were going.

   
First, the interesting part. The Kabul Museum held treasures of inestimable value recalling four thousand years of urban culture, including rule by Alexander and his generals, the empire of the Kushans, trade routes between Rome and China, and many other epochs in that country’s rich and turbulent history. In the mid 1990s it was used as a military base and largely destroyed. What was left was ransacked by the Taliban. In 2003, when a semblance of stability returned to the country, it was found that many of the most valuable objects had been stored away in metal boxes in the basements of the Presidential Palace. Museum staff had done this at great personal risk to save the collection. Now the collection is touring the world, where it is probably safer than in Afghanistan.

The critter in the main hall was cute.

   
Now, it’s a little known fact that Don of What Is Hip is a reincarnated soul. You scoff! But look at the past lives I found in the ancient art of this land traversed by the footloose peoples of old. It’s like a photo album of snapshots from my former days.

For example, those wonderful palace parties! The lyre music, the smiles, the fetchingly unabashed adornment with naught but body jewelry. Oh, and the pyramidal cakes, who could forget?



Oh my gods, I can’t believe they carved this picture! It was so funny! Basically, when she got down -- and she was so hot! –- the couple behind her were all, I mean, and that’s me on the left, there was a mix-up of, you know, I mean we were all pretty gone by this time, it like flew apart and we’re all holding the pieces. I about died. I guess you pretty much had to be there.



Here’s me playing baseball in the uniform of the Begram Ball Bashers and yes, it was cold that day.


This shows how no matter how quietly I come to bed, she always gets woken up. Here she is bitching me out while I’m getting set to brush my teeth. I’m not sure why there’s an elephant floating above her ass, probably represents the dream she had when I first tip-toed into the room. Note the large Bactrian toothbrush.



Some things never change, such as dancing like a fool a la Burning Man. And yep, you guessed it. Another cold day.


I think these chicks were on 'ludes. The chick to the left was all, Hi. Hi. That was it, she kept saying Hi. She was hella fine, too, if you don’t mind a little gummatous necrosis. You can sorta see the attitude, though, can’t you? They were all like, we’re too hot for you. So I was all like, later, bitchiz.

  
Sometimes it’s surprising how much later later can be.

When I took this picture, Mom came up and said, “Yes, they are.”


My photographic skills didn’t quite catch the essence of the depiction here, but trust me: They are. And all wrapped up in each other while they’re at it. Geez, you two. Get a realm.

My mom gave the talking tour, by the way, to tourists and jewel thieves and whoever else was wandering through, and did a fine job of it. Later we walked past the old opera house to a cafe for lunch, and took the F for much of its route (see my bitchin’ picture atop a recent depressing post), and pushed our way through crowds of Fisherman’s Wharf tourists, whose basic nature hasn’t changed since Mark Twain’s day, and generally enjoyed our favorite city as one cannot help but do, however arbitrary the timing, locations, and weather.

  
  

Old Castles and Stormy Skies

This would make a nice header for a web page, if I needed one. Our favorite city as viewed from Alameda. Specifically, from the aft edge of the flight deck of the U.S.S. Hornet CVS-12, last Sunday. Pier 3 at the Alameda Naval Shipyard is also where Doolittle's Mitchell bombers were loaded onto U.S.S. Hornet CV-8, whence they steamed across the Pacific to surprise Tokyo in April 1942. CV-8 was sunk the following October. CV-12 was commissioned in 1943, served with distinction, was later retrofit to become CVS-12, among her other duties picked up the Apollo 11 and 12 astronauts after splashdown, and was finally decommissioned in 1970.

Here's the Hornet as viewed by a crowd of awed teenagers about to spend the night.



Nearby is this weird-looking thing, the back end of a heavy lift ship.



Old relics of war can be the most peaceful places.



Even with a comically angry F-14 aboard.

The Book Stops Here

Not quite yet. But Friday I was three days behind with no chance to work on it, and with Thanksgiving looming I knew I needed to work double-time over the weekend so I could get back on track. Two to three thousand words per day was about what I needed to do. Two to three thousand words each day exploring an off-the-cuff mystery story that, against all odds, was starting to gel. Not necessarily on paper, but in my mind. Characters evolved, story elements and twists emerged, alternate beginnings were envisioned, solutions came to mind for certain problems with plotting that were caused by the need to be realistic, etc. etc. The value of the exercise is included in these discoveries. All I had to do was sit my ass down and write more and write it faster.

So I went backpacking on Angel Island.

Now I'm six days behind with way too much to do in real life to worry about catching up. Not done writing, though. Too much cool stuff thought of to just let it lie, arbitrary internet deadlines or no. The hard part will be continuing it in January.

Angel Island is a national treasure. If it hadn't been turned into a military reservation during the Civil War (when Confederate ships coming in and bottling up the flow of gold were a real worry), and then kept by the Army for various reasons until recent times, it would not now be a wildlife preserve but instead some sort of enclave for the wealthy. Not that there's anything wrong with that but I like it as it is. The views of San Francisco, of the ocean seen through the Golden Gate and its Bridge, of mountainous Marin County, of Richmond, Berkeley and Oakland, of the Bay Bridge, of Alcatraz, they are all unparalleled. You can even see the neighborhood I grew up in if you have some good binoculars (which I didn't).

Hiking, Bay Area style (no, not us!)



A view from the top (Mt. Tam etc.)



Easy camping, long-closed Fort MacDowell and the Bay down beyond



Ghost buildings, a century old





The old Nike base (and yes, I have been down through that hatch, but that is rather another story ... )



A nice view from the ferry, the top of a Golden Gate Bridge tower just visible in the fog



Me and the real reason I do this stuff (or almost anything, really)