See - Do - Hear - Think

Things I've seen, done, heard or thought about in the past few weeks

• Cleaned the fish bowl for my black and blue beta fish at work who's name is Rick James (thanks Metricken & Kay)
  
• Ran close to three miles, three times per week for the past 3 months regularly
  
• Watched the LA Lakers take down San Antonio in the final minutes in game one of some playoffs with MT
• Finished a final cut of Los Toros Films 'One Armed Bartender' with David Fortner
  
• Got my next travel photography assignment for RG - (TBA, contract pending)
• Played four sets of tennis for the first time in more than three years up in San Rafael
  
• Ate some expensive tacos at the newly remodeled El Toro taqueria en El Mision, the same El Toro @ 17th and Valencia that gave me one of my very first taco experiences in SF
• I also ate a peanut butter and mayo sandwich - yep, you read right!
• Edited some old FILM in the storage box archives... cutting and sleeving of old negatives (which should really be on my list of things NOT to do... but since I'm oh so nostalgic... )
• Answered my phone more times than I made outgoing calls (today @ least)
• Canceled last minute on a camping trip to the Modoc Lava Beds up on the Oregon border. The trip has now (un) officially been postponed due to RAIN!
  
• Speaking of rain and photography, here are a couple of totally random shots from last year in Costa Rica while shooting on assignment for RG. I think it rained all but two days for the enitre 4 weeks I was there.
  

please note: all photographs posted above are resized copies from the original camera RAW CR2 Canon file and have had no adjustments made to them. you can see the whites are pretty hot and blown out as well as very weak contrast and flat color. most of that has to do with lighting conditions but also the need to be properly managed in Adobe Lightroom before they can be printed.

Berkeley, Bread and Blood

The price of sandwiches at the Westside Cafe across the street from work in West Berkeley, specifically the basic turkey on homemade marble swirl bread, suddenly rose $0.75 today. Up until now it had been what I considered to be a pretty good Bay Area value at $5 a person. Now, at a whopping $5.75 por cabeza, I'm not so sure. It's still not a bad deal as far as lopped off, no frill standards go and healthy Bay Area sandwiches are definitely not cheap, not anymore.

"So... you guys raised your sandwich prices?" I asked the clerk behind the register.

"Dude... the price of flour like doubled over the past two months. It's not the actual flour but the cost of getting it here," the young pudgy faced counterman told me in semi-confidence and partial disgust.

My immediate thought was Argentina and their struggle against hyper inflation and prohibitively exorbitant ever-increasing food prices in those months before the crash in December of 2001. Pictures of young men, women and children - entire families - commandeering giant dump trucks filled with scrap meat and animal carcasses desperately searching for any and every last salvageable piece of meat, quickly entered my mind.

We're going down, just like what happened in Argentina and no one's looking, no one's watching,.. no one paying attention. That lonesome road and the price we pay for gas and bread.

* picture above brought to my attention by Cal Santos - Thai artist Kittiwat Unarrom and his gruesomely creative bread sculptures

Pura Vida en La Bahia de San Francisco

Here's a brief synopsis for all you budding weather fans and forecasters out there.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY WIND ARCHIVES

unfortunately this graphic didn't stay on my blog. just picture a map of the golden gate bridge with a giant red arrow indicating strong steady winds greater than 25 knots per hour.

SITE MAP Francis L. Ludwig Observed Winds for 5/4/2008 1400 PST

Look at Most Recent Model Output		Click on the map to get a precise reading
	January February March April May June July August September October November December 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 , 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1995 1:00 2:00 3:00 4:00 5:00 6:00 7:00 8:00 9:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 A.M. P.M. PST Model Observations

Wind speeds are in knots. Arrow size indicates exact speed, color gives approximate speed.
All speeds are for the wind at 10 meters above the surface elevation.

Note: See the big red arrow above?! That's over 25 nautical miles per hour (just under 30mph) and that's the baseline. Now, try sailing a 29' Ericson from Sausalito to just South of Jack London Square in Oakland - out towards Alcatraz, past San Francisco in front of Treasure Island, steady swells the entire time to your back and then under the Bay Bridge and into the safety of the Oakland estuary in the above pictured scenario.

The National Weather Service still has its small craft advisory up with a gale force wind warning from Point Arena to Point Conception in the outer waters.

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

 PZZ530-051130-
/O.CON.KMTR.SC.Y.0043.000000T0000Z-080505T0700Z/
/O.EXB.KMTR.SC.Y.0043.080505T1900Z-080506T0600Z/
SAN FRANCISCO SAN PABLO SUISUN BAY AND THE WEST DELTA-
821 PM PDT SUN MAY 4 2008

...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT PDT
TONIGHT...
...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM MONDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH
MONDAY EVENING...

.TONIGHT...SW WINDS 15 TO 25 KT WITH GUSTS TO 30 KT...DECREASING TO
10 TO 20 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT.
.MON...SW WINDS 5 TO 15 KT...INCREASING TO 15 TO 30 KT IN THE
AFTERNOON.
.MON NIGHT...SW WINDS 15 TO 30 KT...DECREASING TO 10 TO 20 KT BY
MIDNIGHT.
.TUE...SW WINDS 5 TO 15 KT.
.TUE NIGHT...W WINDS 10 TO 20 KT. PATCHY FOG.
.WED...W WINDS 5 TO 15 KT. PATCHY FOG.
.THU...SW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT...BECOMING W 10 TO 15 KT. PATCHY FOG.
.FRI...SW WINDS 5 TO 10 KT...BECOMING W 10 TO 15 KT.

Cap'n Super Dave piloted the Res Ipsa right through like there was no tomorrow. And there was a couple of times where tomorrow did run across my brain, especially when we saw this as we were leaving the Sausalito channel.

Click on the pic above to see that it is not a tiny sailboat nor is it a larger sailboat underneath a swell. It is in fact the advisory the Coast Guard posted all day long about a sunken vessel in the Sausalito straight. No wonder we didn't see many boats out today.

May Day... MAY DAY!

Joy to all of my international brothers and sisters who are actually WORKING today as opposed to the rest of the world that has this glorious day - directly between the summer and winter solstice - OFF. Power to the workers... y los pobres tambien.

No Blood For Oil

(taken in London in 2005 - one of my favorite stencils ever... mayb it'll be my next tatoo)

Is the tank half empty?

Not sure what to say but wanted to say something. Here in California, in the San Francisco Bay Area, gas is now more than $4.00 per gallon. That's cheap compared to what most Europeans pay... in many cases, upwards of $10 per gallon once the math is converted to liters and to Euros (no idea what they pay in Japan or China). I currently don't own a car for the first time in my California life, which is actually a blessing in disguise, especially when it comes time to pay the pumpman... or woman or bullet protected attendant. Instead, I use public transportation. Today the black bus driver told me quick and frankly, "machine don't accept paper money, just go on." It was the second time this month that I got a free ride, saving me the $1.75 per ride fee to work. Time to get back on the bike .

(Note: Meanwhile, Exxon continues to post record profits, something I mentioned awhile back on this wee blog.)

Furenzu = Fun with Friends

Good food and good times with your friends is what Restaurant Furenzu is all about. If you're not familiar with the restaurant and their 'New Wave' Asian tapas, here's a review I wrote on Yelp. For those of you that haven't yet seen the news plastered across the media, the restaurant right across the street from me on Adeline at 39th here in Emeryville was robbed at gun point two night ago and most of the patrons as well as Cynthia and Simon had all their cash taken.
As a big fan of the restaurant and as an eye-witness to the crime - yep, I was there with no cash in my wallet - I want to publicly thank Simon the manager who took the brunt of the abuse but kept his cool throughout the entire ordeal, which seemed like an eternity even though it was probably not even five minutes.

After the gunman realized that there was not more than $40 in the cash box, he repeatedly told Simon that he was going to shoot him while his cowardly accomplice sheepishly went around collecting the all-too-ready cash in hand from the stunned patrons. Then the gunman took Simon into the kitchen with the gun pointed at his head shouting, "Nigga, I'm gonna fucking shoot you right now unless you give me the money!" Simon calmly answered again and again that there was no safe and no more money.

Returning into the dining room, the gunman made Simon lay down on the floor with the pistol pointed directly at the back of his head, repeating that he was going to shoot him and then the tow thugs left. Thanks again Simon for keeping calm while your life was at risk, setting the tone for the rest of us, letting us know that we were safe because of your cool-headed poker-like rock steady nerves. You the man!

KC BBQ on San Pablo Avenue

It's SOO the real thing...

Bay Bridge (revised)

American Easter Bunny

The Bay Bridge

Driving and photographing continues to be one of my favorite pastimes, especially westbound on the Bay Bridge heading into the city.

Lee Friedlander @ the SF MOMA

OK - besides Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, the two modern fathers of 'street photography', Lee Freidlander is my third and most significant influence. For those of you in the SF Bay area, do check out his whopping 400+ print show at the MOMA. Gary and I made our way down there yesterday evening to pay our respects and charge our photo batteries so to speak. Makes me realize why I am so driven and inspired to continually shoot. Special thanks to Alan Nomura, my photo mentor, for introducing me to Friedlander and for being such a great friend, teacher and confidant. You the man!
NOTE: The bottom middle nude is an early shot of the material girl herself circa 1979. I knew she was in this series from one of his books but couldn't remember which one. Gary recognized her first, "you can tell by the arm pits."

Que Viva Mexico!

Mexican futból fan outside of the Oakland Coliseum rooting for Mexico in their friendly versus the Australian Olympic team. Final score 1-1 tie.

Street Stencil in SF's Pan Handle

This caught my attention while walking home from an Obama Texas Phone Party with Marina.

Recent Happenings

All recent shots with with no flash at ISO 400 off of the SD-1000.
(Check out the Quilmes beer ad circa the 1940's up in some random bar new bar next to that tattoo shop on Divisadero near Fell... what's that place called? And there's the King of the Dip Shits Dave Fortner busting out with top score at the Presidio Bowl last friday night with a whopping score of 126 - Good Job Fortner. Meanwhile, Will Harper sustained a terrible back strain and was forced out early in the match. Peter Kruse made a strong showing for 2nd with a 124 and yours truly with the busted arm pretty much healed at a meek 121)

MT Goes Orange(s)

Dolores (painful) park in SF. Danny stacked four actual oranges (that he bought just for the occasion and successfully staked 'em good on MT's head.

MT Chokes out El Travel Burro

Paul Green's School of Rock in SF

So... I've gotta say a few quick words on this one. A dear old college friend of mine (nome du guerre the Red Ape's) son Cyrus was playing in Paul Green's School of Rock Pink Floyd tribute band a few weeks ago at the Make Out Room in San Francisco and invited me along. It was just about the coolest thing I've seen - you know, for kids.

Rock Band is cool but this is way cooler. Paul's philosophy of learning to play rock and roll by actually playing real instruments in real venues is awesome, so is he and so are the kids that play in his bands. ROCK ON CYRUS! (seen here playing rhythm guitar second from the left)

The video was shot on medium resolution my tine SD-1000 PowerShot and although the quality is poor, you can hear the music and even feel the atmosphere.

Liberals vs. Conservatives

"If you're not a liberal by age 20, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by age 40, you have no head." Winston Churchill

Funny - the first time I heard that quote that now rings oh-too-true was in the freshmen dorms in San Diego from Holly Page. Recently another friend of mine updated me with the American version - "... if you're not a conservative by age 40, you have no MONEY!" D'OH!

EAT ME!

Pinky's in Ocean Park - San Juan, Puerto RicoProbably one of the coolest eateries outside of Old San Juan and pretty much anywhere on the island - for daily fresh food cooked and served with love - Pinky's in Ocean Park puts out. Dave and I basically ate here everyday for the two weeks that we were in PR and loved it.

The dream child of proprietor Alex Garcia, his friends told him he was crazy when he first opened more than seven years ago serving seven dollar gourmet sandwiches! Now it's a central hub for beach buzzers serving fresh food daily, seven days a week. Here's a blurb from the back of his menu which is a self-proclaimed 'cliff notes version' of the hip cafes history."Thanks for eating at Pinky's. We take pride in buying the freshest fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. Pinky's Vinaigrettes and Garlic Pesto mayo are all home made (and are available by the bottle). We use extra virgin olive oil and cholesterol free canola oil. We never use preservatives. Due to our quality control, some products are subject to availability . We attend Sunday school (you should see the teacher). We reserve the right to change prices without notice (Sup?). We reserve the right of admission and to serve you. We use SPF 30 while shredding Puerto Rico's coastline.Eat Me! - Proprietor Alex Garcia"

Well... we thank you, you sweet, sexy and bohemian gals for serving up some seriously delicious food a mere two block from our pad on Calle Ismael Rivera - you ROCK too! (L-R) Vanessa, Rosanna and Greacely.

Playa, playa, play-ahhhh.....