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September 20, 2005

Ripley's Believe it or Not!

As a kid, I was a big fan of the "Ripley's Believe it or not!" TV Show hosted by Jack Palance.

So I HAD to go to the "Ripley's Believe it or not!" museum in San Francisco. There isn't much to see there apart from some photos of odd people and other curiosities.

But I do like the idea of Ripley roaming around the world looking for the odd and the unthinkable. A quest for strangeness, for anything or anyone that is different or unimaginable. Isn't that what travelling is all about, after all?

(the life size kaleidoscope)

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September 15, 2005

City Lights

City Lights Bookstore is dangerous. I wasn't past the first set of shelves and already felt like buying all the books I'd seen :-)

"Founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin, City Lights is one of the few truly great independent bookstores in the United States, a place where booklovers from across the country and around the world come to browse, read, and just soak in the ambiance of alternative culture's only "Literary Landmark."

I went there with Ricardo and he got me interested in Murakami, Sebald, Mexican Wrestling (he bought a great book filled with the kitschiest photos ever) and Osman Lins. It was the favourite authors exchange moment of the holidays :-)

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September 07, 2005

A night at the Castro

The organist playing at the Castro Theatre, San Francisco

Harold Lloyd: "Safety Last" and "Girl Shy". I hadn't laughed so hard in a long time. I still have flashes of the movies' scenes now and then and will start laughing for no apparent reason.

Whatever happened to Harold Lloyd? Bio here.

I don't know why but it seems natural to me that someone who played shy, innocent characters would end up taking stereoscopic photos of naked girls :-)

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September 02, 2005

Fake B&W

It looks like a B&W photo but it was actually a very gray day at Stinson Beach, San Francisco.

What I've learned about how to cope with San Francisco weather: Layers of clothing.
It can be freezing in the morning;
then the sun comes out: you remove a layer;
the wind stops: you remove another layer;
the fog crawls in: you put on a layer;
the wind starts blowing: you put on the last layer and pray it doesn't get any colder.

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