The moment of take-off

From my recent adventures in falconry.

Wave Organ Pt. 3

Wave Organ Pt. 2

This time with geographical cues.

Wave Organ Pt. 1

The Wave Organ was constructed as an acoustic sculpture in the 1980s on a jetty built from grave markers that were scraped from the last cemetery in San Francisco that resisted moving to Colma. A picture of the Laurel Hill Cemetery can be seen in the middle of this page, which recounts the history of cemeteries in San Francisco, including this directly relating to the materials used in not just the Wave Organ but the jetty itself:

Plans to create a five-acre memorial park on Laurel Hill died due to lack of public support. Meanwhile, between 1939 and 1941, more than 35,000 remains were removed from Laurel Hill to Cypress Lawn. Remains were placed in redwood boxes and taken by hearse the same day to Colma. They were kept for six years in Cypress Abbey Mausoleum because World War II delayed construction of a new mausoleum. After the war, because of rising construction costs, simple concrete vaults were built beneath a five-acre burial mound for the remains. Over 1,000 bodies were interred privately.

Once the entire removal process had been completed, the tombstones were broken into pieces and used as paving materials for gutters lining the walks of Buena Vista Park. Other tombstone fragments were used to create the breakwater near the St. Francis Yacht Club and contractor Charles L. Harney was paid 80 cents per ton to dump crypts and heavy markers into the Bay. Sadly, few of the elaborate Egyptian, Gothic and Neoclassical monuments survived.

I went here on January 2, during the day, and definitely not during a full moon. I cannot attest to the sound quality of the art installation, but I have more photos to follow. I've got to break this cycle of not posting things!

It's not pornography if it's faux-classical [evening scene from a gaudy hotel]

Fire Dancers

A couple of months ago (yes, I am all sorts of behind in my uploads...sigh...) my friend Holly had a community themed birthday party replete with all sorts of entertainment. The highlight for me was the professional juggling/fire dance pair Mountain Mischief. Consider hiring them for your next bar mitzvah or party; they're good people and highly entertaining. They even juggled around Holly and didn't catch her on fire! Score!

Merry Xmas

Last week on the Mental Floss blog, they had an article about making "art" with Christmas lights using SLR cameras. I read it with interest, but at the time I was thinking, "This is the type of stuff that is fun for photographers because they get to play with their cameras, but the results aren't visually arresting enough to hold the viewer's interest." I didn't think I would try anything like this myself, until I arrived to my parents' house last night to find that my mother had not one, not two, but three Christmas trees in the house. I just happened to bring my camera so...here are my mom's three Christmas trees, in order, not quite looking like Christmas trees.

Autumn Color

Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween

Yeah, I know it was yesterday. Can't believe I forgot.
Personally, I think November 1 has a lot more juju.

Beets

Caught playing with my food again.

Chinatown by color & texture

Food (IMO) shouldn't have a face.



























The granny undies made me do it!

Real vs. fake.