BLOGAHOMA

Click on Picture to View Slide Show of our Visit

Yes, I needed it, the San Francisco fix. I had only asked that we see some live music and eat interesting food. Son Colin and DIL (daughter-in-law) Nifer who never do things in a small way, except maybe Balsa Man (miniature Burning Man), dished up a variety of activities that kept us old hippies hopping.

Tuesday Feb 24- Arrived having digested only pretzels since leaving OKC, we noshed out on fabulous orders of sushi from Sushi Zen ordered up with no hesitation by Nifer. Highlights included Cool Summer Roll and Winter Hama Roll, house specialties toasted with saki.

Arriving in their home in the Sunset District we got reaquainted with Ghastly of the Sphinx cat persuasion and met new roomy Stella a charming creative live wire.

Wednesday Feb 25  Lunch at Frjtz Belgium Fries on Valencia Street. Fresh choices to make your palate spin. And you must have the fries. I had a crazy mixed up salad with tuna, cranberries, caper and avocado and more. We meandered the mission from there and stopped into the Five and Diamond THE place for your favorite Steam Punk clothes and accessories.

After grocery shopping, Nifer produced a nummy dinner of grilled orange roughy and tasty jimaca, corn salad. Met the other half of the roomies Doug of the orange and yellow hair owner of two adorable rats that have a pension for good booze.

Thursday Feb 26th – Cellphone problem finally fixed thanks to Tim Leung of Verizon SF. Took a trip up North to Mt. Tamapai for picnic and hiking. Great views, glorious day! That evening we grabbed a cookie from Hot Cookie in the Castro. Then down a few store fronts to the Castro Theatre to see “Milk“. As Milk is all about Harvey Milk, of the Castro, how he fought for gay rights, it was so right to be there in that marvelous deco theatre with the organ rising from under the floor. Being part of the audience was an electrifying experience as people cheered and wept during transforming scenes throughout the movie.

Friday Feb 27th – Colin accompanied us to The JeJune Institute. (Antisystematically increase creative inspiration in the public sphere). Suffice it to say that we were initiated. The process took the better part of the day. And that is ALL we can say. We are sworn to secrecy.

Colin good to his promise, took us to a concert took us to the Great Music Hall, a melange of Baroque and Rococo decor, the perfect venue to experience indie music. There was opening acts, Rafter being the best, a crazy guitarist/ singer with zany stage presence. The main act, St. Vincent (Annie Clark), was wispy bit of thing with huge talent including singing her own songs in several voices and wielding the guitar like she was the second coming of Jimi Hendrix.We will be the probably be able to see her for a mere $16!

Saturday Feb 28th – Doug’s 30th Birthday Party. Stella throws together outfits for the two of them for the Logan’s Run themed party. (An apropo movie where no one is allowed to live past the age of 30.) The festivities moves through San Francisco spots linked in ways to the movie. It is during one of the stops in the Castro district where we are invited to slide down the concrete slides (erected by a hippy family in 1973) in the Castro. Then it is on to Eddie Rickenbackers where classic motorcycles hang from the ceiling as eye candy. We down an Irish Coffee or two before we head for home base (other’s hit a few more spots). The rest of the party arrives and we actually watch the movie while chowing down on some pretty decent East Indian food.

Sunday March 1st - Thai Temple Berkley for curry brunch in the rain. Surprising number of folks considering the steady downpour. Seated under tents we dine with the burner community. The took is lively, the company fun.  Seated next to me is Michael, a 16 year old film editing genius and par cor aficionado. Some day I will see his names on the credits of some action thriller as, yes, film editor. I also meet Brody, Kitty, Elliott, Kevin, Flint (with that name you gotta be a burner), Ben, Chris and CTP (maker of strange buttons). Fueled up with spicy curry we move on over to The Berkeley Botanical Gardens. At first the rain is little annoying but then not much noticeable as view the lush grounds. Last stop a Berkeley cafe for me a must. Michael prepares my favorite, butternut squash soup and brushetta with goat cheese. Nifer gets fire going and soon we have forgotten the dampness of the day.

Monday March 2nd - After fine breakfast of citris fruit in orange liquor and Michael’s muffins Colin, Michael and I head up to SFMOMA to take in the visual arts. Nothing special on exhibit but being able to view Katharina Fritcsh’s Baby with Poodles is worth the trip.  I pick up a few new ideas in the gift shop that I promise I will try to work on when I get back.  Back to Berkeley this time meeting up with Morley, an engineer/ geologist in the making, for zesty Cajun fare at Angelina’s Kitchen. Lots of techie conversation mixed with plans for TIMEscale (lost funding) for Burning Man. Walk down in the rain for Gelato, worth it. My choice Ginger and Roasted Banana.

Tuesday March 3th Last day in San Francisco starting out with Nifer’s eggstrata with cheese, aspargus and pear. Down to San Jose to go through the Tech Museum of Innovation. We all agree although there was fun aspects they need to update the innovation part. Last meal masterpiece…. Lamb burgers with carmelized onions and pesto, cucumber salad with yogurt sauce, and rosemary pototos. Thanks Nifer.

Final notes: Most nights brought out the board games including Ticket to Ride, Settlers and Mexican Train Dominos.  Always a good way to end our pleasant days. Conversation was always clever and pithy (don’t know one tell you different). Thanks to Colin for being the man of record as he carried his cute little Kodak Zi6 for capturing grown up kids on slides and the like.

We just got back from Taos where we stayed in an EARTHSHIP, one of those self-sustainable earth packed places. We walked away impressed wondering why more places and more builders aren’t incorporating the techniques since it has been functionally around since the 70’s. Being off the grid turned out to be very people friendly but it didn’t much cotton to hair dryers. To confess we tried it once for a half of head of hair. We watched the meter drop like crazy! Since then I have used mine sparingly at home, letting my hair air dry until I finish getting dressed and then blowing it dry. Surprisingly it works just as well for me. I say if you want to think GREEN stay in a earthship for a week, it makes you aware of your water, electricity and waste. It was comfortable and fun.

Fun consisted in building a fire in the wood-burner for a couple hours a night (that’s all it took to keep you toasty all night long) and playing board and card games. Kim served as our game  concierge. Since there is plenty of land around each earthship we bought a kite sending it soaring with picturesque mountains as a backdrop. Nothing like letting child out to play on a windy March day!

Not that we stayed the entire time in the earthship, all five of us full size adults ( I’m smarter than a fifth grader but maybe not as tall) compacted ourselves into Kim’s fuel saving Honda Accord an toured New Mexico. Nothing like family bonding. We all agreed our favorite day was our trip to Bandelier National Monument near Los Alamos where we walked among the some of the earliest earth homes built by the Pueblo people. Some of us climbed the ladders up into the cliff dwellings. As I have developed pesky vertigo I had to say no to the ladders but watched as the “kids” clambered up the 142 steps to the top kiva.

We had no problem picking where to eat. We all agreed that there would be NO fast food. We had several meals in our cozy little earthship. I liked our breakfast at Michael’s Kitchen in Taos, loved those German lemon pancakes. For elegance we all loved The Artichoke in Albuquerque. I believe Nifer tried out at least three different onion soups (I think she liked the soup from the French Café in Taos. Nifer and Colin fixed some amazing stuff including a salad that taste as good as it looked. Colin made some Rosemary potatoes delish! And Michael’s turkey burger with mushrooms and brie cannot be turned down.

We balanced our trip pretty well with parks, museums, sightseeing with everyone being quite flexible to other’s suggestion and choices. We stopped at the Museum at Los Alamos to learn about the beginning of the Atomic bomb and visited both the Georgia O’Keeffe Art Museum as well as the Fechin House and Taos Museum to get an idea about the artist enclave beginnings in New Mexico.

Now if you love the idea of staying in an Earthship let Tony know you heard it from us!

Click here to see a selection of pictures we took there.

I have a gift, propensity for spotting patterns. When it began I cannot say. I remember scoring the highest you can in abstract reasoning, 99th percentile in high school. It may have been my favorite test score right up there with scoring tops in logic (1) . Right now for instance I was thinking about Land Rovers in Ireland, the ubiquitous Land Rover covered in dust found heading to the same small town, castle ruin or Celtic ruin where we were heading. Ireland is full of patterns, so for me it mind expanding as I record and store these patterns. It is, in a way, a smaller, easier study then try to figure out the patterns in the US or even patterns in Oklahoma. Grant it had we toured larger cities it may have added too many variables to my pattern observation to make it a valuable study. Junking it up as it were. Be cognizant of the patterns also helps to bring out the uniqueness or note what is absent. Although there is a beauty in pattern observation there is also downside. Pattern observation can be, and has been used as a tool to stereotype. Then there is the problem of setting out to discover patterns in that you might be blinded by your goal and overestimate the occurrences.

I wasn’t looking for patterns they found me. Ireland, being a completely new experience and not having done any significant reading, allowed my brain to open a fresh notebook in which to compile the uninfluenced info that came streaming in. In absence of preconceptions I was able to collect data without being aware of the collecting.

Not so surprising patterns in Ireland: Celtic crosses and Celtic motifs, tractors, sheep blocking the roads, tour buses, rock fences and walls, castle ruins, bed and breakfasts, music pubs, men named Mike, Mickey and Michael, American tourists going to Blarney castle.

Less expected patterns: Land Rovers, Micro brews named after city or towns, Eastern Europeans working in service industries, Brightly painted facades, American country western music being played in pubs (2) , radio stations that were talk radio (3), radio stations that played hip-hop, beautiful scenic byways with absolutely nowhere to stop.

Of course within every pattern are differences (stone fences like snowflakes are each different in how the stones roll and rest). Where I could probably easily point out the differences in fences I would be hard pressed to distinguish between Land Rovers. And tractors seemingly universal provided many more functions than I imagined. Sheep came marked with different pastel spots making their differences detectable at first sight (4) .

Of we captured much of this pictures. Choosing which ones and how to group them for an art show in Spring will study in logic itself.

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Back from Ireland at least physically. We found Ireland enchanting. We avoided the cities, stayed in B&B’s, visited ruins, drank pints and listened to music in pubs, rambled the countryside and the in town alleyways and indulged in fresh from the land and sea cuisine. We met some charmed folks mostly Irish but a few delightful tourists as well. We photographed to capture the moments. I kept a journal of our trip. What I have included here is an expanded version of my scrawls. Clicking here to see pictures and/ or read the journal.