Berkeley… part 1… (Or): I see dead people!

Posted on January 3, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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These figurines were actually in the front window of a head shop… or at least that is what the cool kids used to call stores that sold ‘smoking supplies’.

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There are a lot of these places in Berkeley… still… and what with marijuana being legalized in California, I doubt they will be going anywhere soon. And some of these were around when I was a teenager.

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But hey, we had to take Mollie’s boyfriend to Berkeley while we were in the Bay Area, didn’t we?

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Okay, that guy on the right is just ironic, in light of the recent election.

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I always find these little works of art to be charming.

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I have one or two more posts of our adventure in Berkeley, but we are nearing the end of the latest Bay Area saga.

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Some tasty Italian treats…

Posted on January 3, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Oh… whoops… maybe I shouldn’t have led of with that picture following the title… I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong idea…

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What I mean to say is that, on the way back from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, we stopped in Little Italy for dinner…

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And the place where we ate had an awesome collection of reproductions of art, most of which I am pretty sure I saw when I was in Rome.

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I also took another picture of Coit Tower as the sun was setting.

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But I really like the art that was hanging on the restaurant walls.

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And these were large pieces… of art, I mean… In fact, I was worried about the weight if there was an earthquake.

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But, if you look very closely at the edge of the piece on the very left of that picture above, you will see where some of the coating has cracked off. These copies of ancient, classical and renaissance art are just made of foam, with a layer of fake marble sprayed on at the end.

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I wish I knew where they were made. That would be a fun and inexpensive way to decorate your house.

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And it was a fun place to eat.

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I took a quick photo of the church before we caught an uber car back to the BART station and headed back to my mom’s house on the other side of the bay. That is just about it for the San Francisco portion of our trip… with a few more ‘artsy’ shots saved for the very last post. We saw a lot of the city in three days, and I tried to share some of the feel of it with you.

 

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The last photos of our adventure in Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco…

Posted on January 3, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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I know, we are already back in San Diego. I fell a little behind, but only because we did so many cool things while we were in the Bay Area.

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I hope you enjoyed this part of our adventure… the sea lions, the food, the cute dogs, the street performers and artists, the history of an interesting part of a fascinating city.

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Even the old electric buses that run on tracks and are powered by overhead power lines are pretty to look at.

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San Francisco is full of little surprises like that.

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There is the Richmond Bay Bridge, that we took to the city on our first day of adventuring.

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And there is the Oakland Bay Bridge, our route to San Francisco on the second day of fun, hiding behind some masts. You should Google the construction of the new part of the bridge. It is another classic example of how the republicans screw the people of this country in any way they can get away with.

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Coit tower and the tip of the Transamerica building.

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I hope you enjoyed these. We have one more stop to make, for dinner in Little Italy, as we made our way back across the bay to my mom’s house. Then, a brief foray into Berkeley, and a few other things, before we wrap this trip up.

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8 years of letting nothing get done, and what’s the first thing Republicans do?

Posted on January 3, 2017 by pouringmyartout

Get rid of ethical oversight. You shameless asswipes.

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I am safely back home… you can all relax…

Posted on January 3, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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You know who is good at relaxing? The sea lions that live beside Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. They used to sleep on the docks used by the fishing boats and the ones for people who own their own boats, but now they have their own little floating docks, put there just for them.

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Why is there always that one jerk, climbing over everybody else, biting and making noise?

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Seriously… just simmer down.

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That is the face of a sea lion that just got woken up by the jerk.

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After a nap, you need to stretch…

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And have a good scratch.

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Oh yeah… that’s the spot…

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Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz………..

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It’s time to say goodbye to the Bay Area… wait, I mean, me, not you… you still have a bunch of pictures to look at…

Posted on January 2, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Goodbye, San Francisco… I will miss you, as always.

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Goodbye, Golden Gate… it is time once again for that long drive through California’s central valley, then the slog through Los Angeles and the annoying traffic… just to get to San Diego.

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You should get lots of sleep… because we aren’t done with this adventure yet.

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Oh no, not by a long shot. HA! See what I did there? It is a photograph taken with a zoom lens, which is also called… oh, forget it.

 

 

 

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Eating history… (Or): Crabby bread!!!

Posted on January 2, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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There is one thing you absolutely must do if you are ever in Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco… and that is… go to this place…

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Yeah, it has been a San Francisco tradition since the gold rush! And I wasn’t kidding in the title. When you eat their sourdough, you are eating history.

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That is because bread yeast is a living organism… and every time they make a new batch, they use some of the yeast from the last batch as a ‘starter’… and that means that every time you eat that bread, you are eating the ancestors of living things that were alive during the freekin’ gold rush of 1849. That’s before the American civil war, people.

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Also, the bakery is fun to visit…

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But there is one thing that makes them the most San Franciscolicious thing to do in the city…

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They take little, round loaves of sourdough, and fill them with clam chowder. If you eat that on Fisherman’s Wharf, you are experiencing the real San Francisco.

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Or, you could just tell everybody you ate a baby turtle.

 

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And this guy…

Posted on January 2, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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This might have been the fastest art I ever saw made that was still pretty dang awesome… did that sentence make any sense, grammatically or otherwise?

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What I mean is that the paintings were beautiful and eye-catching…

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But he was doing it at lightning speed… he was twirling the canvas around, grabbing cans of spray paint and spraying it, using various bent pieces of cardboard to shape the spray of the paint just where he wanted it to go…

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And while the paint was still wet, he would grab a pallet knife or a little scrapper, and scrape paint off in fine lines… that is how he did the bridge and buildings. And he did all those details in like twenty seconds.

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I mean, it was impressive to watch, and the finished product was something that appeals to me, at least, and he was selling them for only $15… I would have bought one, but we were using public transportation, and I would have had to carry it around.

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And then there was this guy…

Posted on January 1, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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Okay, that is a bad camera angle… let me move… he seems to be doing a headstand on a very tall table.

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Okay, that’s better. Now he is standing on a plank balanced on a metal cylinder. That is just the kind of thing you see on Pier 39, which is part of the area called Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.

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I guess that is sort of cool… oh… wait…

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He had somebody in the crowd hand him some cups and another plank, and climbed up higher… without getting down first…

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And then he had another person hand him more stuff…

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And he is rolling around up there like a kid on a skateboard…

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And he was pretty funny, too.

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And he is from England, which, for some reason, made the whole thing more interesting.

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Okay, the juggling was a nice touch…

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And the ladies liked it when he took off his shirt…

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Well, now what is he up to?

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There you go!

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I talked to him after the show, and told him I would put the photos on the blog… (I mean, I was going to anyway)… He is from England, and grew up in a circus family. His joke was that his parents were acrobats, but now they are old and fat, so they are clowns… HA! His name is Orion Griffiths, and you should check him out. He is moving to LA because he wants to be a serious actor. I hope he makes it.

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Some of the weirdest… and creepiest things you will ever see…

Posted on January 1, 2017 by pouringmyartout

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One interesting thing to do at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, is the

Musée Mécanique

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It features a bizarre collection of old games and music box shows from the early 1900’s and even a few classic video arcade games.

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And you can still stick a quarter in these things and watch a drunk cowboy on a drunk horse sway back and forth…

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Or… okay, I have no idea what that one does…

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It is some strange, old-timey fun, the admission is free, and even kids love it.

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In fact, I suggest you all take your kids there. It is cool to see them interact with pre-electronic games… and it will teach them to stay away from drunk sailors and cowboys.

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Okay, I don’t know what that will teach them, but kids love it.

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Yes, there are some racist overtones to some of it. This was before political correctness, and anyway, President Trump is going to ban political correctness soon, so maybe we should get used to it.

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Wait… is that a scene from the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie???

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Alrighty then.

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I think that on Halloween, they should turn on all the games, turn off all the lights, and lock people in there for an hour.

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Uh… I think that is the drinking game version of Singing In The Rain.

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And a drunk English sailor, just to round things off.

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Ummmmmm…?

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Yup.

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Yee-haw!

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Monks… ringing bells… there was also one that was like the front door of the Bastille, and if you put a quarter in, the doors opened, and you could see nobles being beheaded by a guillotine. I kid you not. I didn’t get a picture of that. Sorry.

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Okay, don’t bring babies in there… that would just be wrong.

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