Can you bear it

Carnival last year, I'm hoping it's as sunny and warm this year, too. Homemade hats? check. BBQed oysters? oh yeah.

Summer Sun Arrives

Ahh, I miss the warm sun on my face, that sweet summer smell in the air, and the plans for bbqs at the beach or picnics at the park. I think they're here again! The weekend was warm in Monterey and I'm so glad I got out of the city to enjoy it.

Rooster Fever

Taken with my iphone on Alemany Boulevard near Onondaga... the man had four of them, two roosters and two hens. He was SO proud and when he saw me looking, he took one out and let it hang out on the sidewalk. It started dancing and singing and basically showing off, which made the man very proud.

Air and Sky

Going home to visit in PA is such a treat. I get to escape the city, gain perspective, visit with my loving family and catch up on things I've been missing. It's getting a dose of something I need but wasn't quite aware that I really needed it. I still think of PA as my home even though San Francisco has earned that title, too. So much of me is here and always will be and I seem to get a better understanding of that each time I visit. I also deepen my love and appreciation for where I'm at now and all the things I've gained and accomplished. The notion is kinda corny, but we often take for granted or at least fail to regularly acknowledge the many great parts of our life that are simply just there for us. Home! More than just free meals and free haircuts!

Front Page News!

Sammy Hagar plays a show in Cabo San Lucas: front cover news!

US fires missiles and begins air-strikes in Libya: page five, of course.

Our Youth are Waiting

The Mission is a neighborhood that is easy to appreciate and fall deeply in love with. It's real and doesn't attempt to present itself as something it isn't. The love it has to give is deep and can't really be explained but instead must be observed, witnessed and experienced in order to develop an admiration and understanding of it.  The diversity of this neighborhood is vast. The people are all over the spectrum and seem to fit together in various ways, supporting one another either unconsciously or consciously to make a Mission version of the "circle of life".

Crime is on the forefront of most of our minds recently. More specifically, gang-related crime has been vividly and vigorously depicted in the media and has a lot of families and neighbors feeling fearful, uncomfortable and worried. I wanted to post this photo and say these words to remind us of the most important members of our society: the youth. They are waiting for us to do something, to say something, and to make some sense out of this for them.

Is this a Dream?!

Japan Town mall.

Making the Bike

pre-painting, pre-everything...

photo by Sam Prest

finished!

Yellow

Love the color, the subjects, the composition. The building is in China town. Brick structures are all over the east coast, bricks of every color, but more rare here. The bird on the top chased the bird on the bottom away, but it didn't go far.

Music, Sun and GGP

Three things that are so lovely together. With the weather having broke, people are out and about in the city. Love this time of year! I've missed being able to hop on my bike and be anywhere soon. This is a shot taken on the wiggle. I got myself a new bike so I rode it to the beach and back with my trusty point and shoot by my side.

Dedicated to Fresh Prince

Love, love street art. I always pay attention to the writing the walls, the buses, the ground I walk on, and any other sweet space someone has found to be the perfect place for their message, their paint, their craft, their bridge to whatever sense of sanity they manage to find through the medium. Fresh Prince caught my eye, mostly because I adore the show and thought it a funny moniker for an artist to use. Took a photo of one sighting, then to my surprise kept seeing them all over the city. If you notice something, even just one time, your eyes are now wide open. While not on purpose, not intentionally/consciously looking, you are now seeing whether you like it or not. This is a funfresh example of the phenomenon, but wow, how many more out there, the not-so-fresh examples, have done something to you forever.

Cali Poppies

My good friend recently got herself a fancy camera, so we took a trip to the conservatory for some experimentation and lessons. What a gorgeous place! Simple and small, but so much to appreciate and experience. She got the hang of things quickly and really took some great shots. This shot is taken with my point and shoot outside of the conservatory. I like the lines in it. I like the depth of field, poppies in the foreground, background, and people even further back, blurry, looking like poppies themselves.