Knobby Tree, Central Park, NYC

Growing behind a park bench overlooking the East Side. It was so knobby I could not ignore it.

Mountain View Cemetery Statuary - Oakland, California

Straight shots of some of the beautiful sculpture at Oakland's scenic Mountain View Cemetery. Ideally as a photographer, I'd take along a reflective surface for some bounce-light possibilities. But sometimes it's a nice challenge to just look at something in its existing light and see what the camera lens can make of it.

Next time you're in Oakland, take a walk up the hill at Mountain View and see the sights (including the San Francisco skyline, the Bay and beyond).

Sundial Bridge - Redding, California

I recently visited the beautiful Sundial Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava in Redding, California. This pedestrian span crosses the Sacramento River and leads to 300 acres of trails and parkland. An arboretum and interactive museum seal the deal. Worth a visit. Like functional sculpture.

 

Future's Past Tree Sculpture - Hayes Valley, San Francisco

This metal sculpture lights up at night in a mesmerizing way, but I was on a daytime visit. Still—looking good! Future's Past was created by Kate Raudenbush and you can see it on Octavia at Hayes, in the green-space across from Smitten Ice Cream (another important cultural landmark).

Iron Tunnel - Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, Berkeley

Part of the large and lovely vegetable garden founded by Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard project at MLK Middle School.

Zoom-in San Francisco

View from the Oakland Firestorm Memorial. San Francisco looks otherworldly in the haze and fog.

Rehearsal Space

welcome to rehearsal space
invitation only
a square a circle
a basic sound unit
made skewed
by those who skew
and we've all seen
what there is to be seen
but know there's
always more
welcome to rehearsal space
did someone lock the door?


Poem #21 - NaPoWriMo

Lan Su Chinese Garden - Portland, Oregon

I take my son to the Lan Su Garden
on a city block in Portland
we frame our views
through multiple windows
watery leafy bridges surround
mountains the size of my son
this doesn't have to be here, I think
yet here it is


Poem #15 - NaPoWriMo

Blue trees, Westlake Park, Seattle Washington

If trees were arteries
and newly developed building sites
  were clots
Seattle would be in trouble


Poem #5 - NaPoWriMo

Chapel of the Chimes Columbarium - Oakland, California

A columbarium is a building full of niches that hold cremated remains. Oakland happens to have a very beautiful one, designed by Julia Morgan—The Chapel of the Chimes. The older section of the chapel—a Moroccan-style maze of a building dates from 1928. Additions have been added and all sections contain a multitude of skylights, gardens, fountains and mezzanine levels.

The Chapel sponsors a jazz-concert series and holds a surprisingly weird annual Summer Solstice ambient-noise concert throughout its mysterious hallways and secretive rooms. A strange and enchanting experience.

We found the resting place for John Lee Hooker, a Bay Area blues master.

We took a hike up the hill at the adjacent Mountain View Cemetery, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted.

The higher you go, the more elaborate the monuments on "millionaire's row"

A view of the San Francisco skyline—pyramids galore

Mystic River, Connecticut

December along the Mystic River and cove. A lovely but cold day—barely 30 degrees with a brutal wind. This was just before the big snowstorm (next post).

Walnut Creek and Heather Farm Park after 1.5-inch rainfall

Normally this section of Walnut Creek (uglified as a canal to prevent flooding) is placid and so shallow, you could theoretically walk alongside the water without getting your feet wet. But not today after a RAGING monsoon hit this morning. It was a wall-of-water falling for at least two hours, dumping more than an inch of rain before 9 A.M.

It cleared up by early afternoon and we took a stroll to see what we could see. Crazy-fast water from the creek, heading out to sea. And the lake in the nature habitat at Heather Farm Park rose up over the road and into the creek along the walking path. A lone worker (later joined by a small crew) was trying to unclog a drain with a single shovel. Hail, water-district personnel!

The Incredible View from the Lawrence Hall of Science Parking Lot

The San Francisco Bay Area has some incredible parking-lot views. The parking tower at UCSF on Parnassus with the entire Golden Gate Park and Pacific Ocean to its left, comes to mind. Same with the top floor of the structure above the Festival Theater in Walnut Creek, surrounded by three mountain-ridge formations plus Mt. Diablo towering over all and more often than not, shining in the sun.

But the parking-lot view adjacent to Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science is the most breathtaking in scope. Yesterday we pulled into a space overlooking the sweeping panorama of the San Francisco Bay where five cities were easily viewable, along with the Bay, Golden Gate and Richmond Bridges. Plus Mt. Tam and the Berkeley campanile. Why, we could see our old house from there! (Not really, but with less tree cover—no doubt we could).

It was a bit hazy in the afternoon, clearing up by sunset. My little camera cannot do it justice, but here's a captioned image of the view from our car. As always, click to enlarge.

The Lawrence Hall of Science is a fun, interactive kids' science museum. A big bunker of a bomb-shelter-like building cut into the side of the Berkeley Hills. The cafe has more breathtaking views from the hillside basement. Best time you'll ever have eating a bag of chips, I promise. The roof of the museum has gigantic whale and dna-strand climbing sculptures, but surprisingly, for such an expanse of concrete—no plant life in containers or otherwise. I guess you need to drive down the hill a quarter-of-a-mile and visit the excellent UC Botanical Garden. Hey, somebody get a grant to hire a gardening team for that rooftop.

Jackson and his friend Clarabelle had a very fun day, building stuff, testing flight patterns of modified junk in air tubes, riding a tricycle with square wheels, petting a snake, viewing a baby mastodon skeleton, and creating dams in the outdoor water and rock garden. Good stuff.