Friday, October 31, 2014

Hallowe'en in ye Olde Berkeley

Just some glimpses and contemplations around town, you dig?



1. 
Berkeley Hallowe'en




 Berkeley Hat Shop
Source for many a black beret for me,
A costume center too






 Mossy tree on the Ohlone pathway






 Department of Unintended Symbolic Irony






 Cows in Berkeley?
This one knows when the BART trains go by
and when the first snow will arrive





 Mug shot on BART





 Community garden gate





Body-builder on Telegraph














31 October 2014






2. 
Ye Olde Berkeley


The Flaneur adds a few images captured in the lead-up to Hallow'en





Trad Berkeley, 
'twas ever thus







Brazen Nyad







Venerable living Dogwood tree








27 October 2014

Thursday, October 30, 2014

A Walk Along the Waterfront (The Secret of the Sea, Part IV, Chapter 1)






The Flaneur goes sight-seeing on the Barbary Coast's memory lane.







Crabs and mermaids rule 




 

Dine in art moderne style





 

Don't forget to bring your billfold







Of course there is fare to fit most budgets





It's eat or be eaten
Golden rule of the oceanic ecology




Old time street cars glide past,
Automobiles are discouraged





Groove to live music along Jefferson street,
The San Francisco sound has world renown








Representing the old Italian merchants,
I'll take a can of RAY TEX





New Wave art pin, 1979
Purchased at the Postcard Palace 
Columbus Avenue, North Beach








Cheap surrealism abounds






No more will Eminem rub shoulders with the Pope
The Wax museum has melted and concealed
It's doors stuck shut forever








Nautically inclined architecture,
The impression of a floating world






 Swim clubs enjoy a place of privilege,
In the middle of the National Historic Maritime Park






 

 You've got an "S" an "X" and an "E"
What can that spell?





Mermaids




 Did you ever hear a dolphin smile?
Cold water hash and a dunk in the Bay






 It's never easy getting a spliff lit on the beach





 
Nobody drops a dime,
Because the cops don't need you
And man they expect the same,
 This is San Francisco, California
U.S.A.








 Everybody's high







 People are left to their own devices,
Mind your own bee's wax






Be cool,
Not like you just got off a banana boat






 Cable car turn-around,
Clanging bells, sound of the tracks,
 A unique odor of heated metal







 This joint has the audacity to claim
It invented the Irish Coffee,
They're good here though






Galleries forecast Peak Dali in 2050,
Shortages are expected to follow





Coit tower and North Beach comes into view






 Looking back fondly at the Maritime scene
 from the fractal-like municipal pier







As far as we go,


 

 

As evening falls the Flaneur retraces his path






Nothing says Christmas like homicidal robots,
But he's had enough over-stimulation for one day





 EAT CRAB
 JOE'S
CRAB SHACK
indeed





Big neon fish,
Attracts businessmen in sharkskin suits,
Crucial to the food chain






Some of the money the City spent on the America's Cup
might have refurbished this historic signage







I recently watched the film "Birdman of Alcatraz,"
This rugged old neon fisherman had a cameo in it
A movie-star for over sixty years 





 


 Just enough time left
To side-swipe the Side Show







 Ring them bells





 Dusk settles like a pointillist painting







 We cast off from the heady hedonism
Of Fisherman's Wharf





 Into the liquid gold of the evening sky








2013-2014

Monday, October 27, 2014

Fiesta de Los Muertos







When the woods turn to red and green tweed, and the veil between the living and the dead is thin, a gathering takes place to mark the beginning of holy unholy week. Sunday is now comparable to Palm Sunday as we begin a week in celebration of the dead and in contemplation of haunted things.




1.
Terraza de Ofrendas



Cornucopia of memento mori
and comida de los muertos







 Remembering the dead
Provides the living with something to do






 In the plaza below
The musical machinery cranks up






 A good time dance band,
 Latin American pattern recognition






 Be careful not to step on any fresh graves



 2.
 Los Artisanos de los Muertos





 Master craftsman's table,
A mother and daughter study the tradition,
The art of the skull








Sugar and water
 How to make candy skulls








 Everybody represents
Their own skull face







 Senora selling decorated candy skulls







 Skulls all sizes





 Calavera Mother and child
In the area where babies are held







Guerrilla Theater
 The white monster made theMeso-Americans
Bow to the altar of US Militarism










 3. 
Calaveras y Calacas
For Sale


 

 Elegant skeletons






 It seems some marriages are made in hell






'Til death do we part?
Some couples are like Mormons,
Who stay married until the end of time







 I'm still pining for my own corpse bride










 A huge day,
A new mural was unveiled
 Part of the bone-knob festivities









 Momentos and the chrysanthemums fade away,
Eventually no one remembers those who once lived,
Souls go back to the Eternal Soul








To all the living and the dead,
Bye-bye









26 October 2014