Sorry for the AFK folks… I’ve been busy all this month and looks like that this will be my one and only post for November. Sad… I just got a Deviant Art account, igloojohn. So far I only placed up a few photos. I plan on putting up some illustrations in the near future… Also I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Friday! It’s storming out here in the SF Bay Area. So if you’re near or around the Bay, stay safe and dry!
Tag: San Francisco
Congrats Giants! See you at the Victory Parade!
What an amazing journey for the San Francisco Giants as they reign supreme over the Detroit Tigers. The Giants didn’t just have luck on their side but they had the skill to capitalize on opportunities and the hunger for the championship to sweep the Tigers.
Triple Crown Miguel Cabrera goes home only as an ALCS champion after Sergio Romo stuck him out to end Game 4 while Pablo Sandoval earned the World Series MVP.
Time for the City to party and celebrate the next few nights after the Giants have won their 2nd World Series in 3 years. For those of you wondering when the World Series Victory parade will be held for the San Francisco Giants, it will be held Wednesday 11:00 AM from the foot of Market street to Civic Center. More information here. If the route is the same as the 2010 World Series victory parade, then it will look like this.
Just fair warning, there will be a slight chance of rain during the parade. To see the predicted weather for the victory parade, click here.
Now I need to find a reason to get out of the office to catch the parade o.O
San Francisco Fall Antique Show 2012
It is fall and here in San Francisco that means Giants, World Series, #OrangeOctober, and the annual San Francisco Fall Antique Show. The SFFAS started Thursday October 25th and runs through Sunday the 28th. Tickets for general admission is $15 if purchased ahead of time, if not $20 at the door. There are seminars and lectures that does vary in price. The sales of the tickets do benefit Enterprise for High School Students.
For more info about tickets, click here.
Here are some of the fine antiques from the SFFAS. If you have a chance to attend it, I highly recommend it.
Reliving the ’89 Loma Prieta Earthquake
With the New England quake and today being the 23rd anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, I thought I’d share my experience from that October day.
In 1989 I was ten years old and growing up in the hard streets of Oakland, a city that is approximately 12 miles east of San Francisco. To better defend myself form the punks in the neighborhood, my mom signed both my brother and I up for taekwondo classes.
On October 17th, 1989 I was at my taekwondo class which started at 5. We were done with our warm ups and were beginning our stretches with everyone sitting on the floor in a circle. As we sat there facing each other, I felt the need to fart. I slowly turned my body to one side to help the gas escape out slowly and quietly. While farting all my concentration was on myself trying to be a ninja and not make any noise. Next thing I knew the everyone got up screaming and running towards me to get to the door behind me. The room was rocking left and right but I just thought that someone had bumped into me. This whole time my thoughts were that everyone heard me fart and the room smelled hella bad, which is why everyone bolted for the door to get outside. As I sat there alone in the circle, I noticed that the rocking hasn’t stopped. That is when I knew that there was something wrong. I don’t remember getting up, all I remember was running for the door.
As I look back to the event, I’m just glad that I didn’t shit myself. As selfish as it sounds, I’m grateful that I did not lose anyone close to me that day.
Below is a California Highway Patrol recount and investigation from that day:
Part 1 of 2
Part 2 of 2
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
A while back I drove around West Oakland and found myself at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park. This park is hidden around the Port of Oakland but if you look for the signs, you can find yourself here. Middle Harbor Shoreline Park has a great view of the San Francisco skyline that is visible anywhere in the park. To get a better view of San Francisco’s skyline you can climb up into the observation tower that has free viewing scopes. Next time you are in Oakland, I recommend having Middle Harbor Shoreline Park as one of your go to destinations.
Beyond Wonderland – Bay Area
This past Saturday in Oakland there were almost 400 noise complaints for a rave that was happening at the O.co Coliseum. This rave that lasted till 2 in the morning had headliners that consisted of Avicii, Alesso, Sander van Doorn, Chuckie, and much more. This rave that caused so much noise that can be felt and heard for miles was called Beyond Wonderland. And what a wonderful experience it was!
Beyond Wonderland has been around for sometime however this was the first time that Insomniac has decided to bring it north to the San Francisco Bay Area. The line to enter the venue moved fast, the weather wasn’t to cold, the Dj’s were killing it, and my ears were ringing till this afternoon 🙂
I have included a map (courtesy of Insomniac) of the venue below so you can get an idea of the venue. For those of you unfamiliar with O.co Coliseum and the Oracle Arena, the O.co is the home of both the Oakland Athletics and the Oakland Raiders while the Oracle Arena is the home of the Golden State Warriors. The O.co is set to the East of the Oracle Arena where they are both flanked by parking to the north and south. The venue was set in the south parking lot. There were 3 stages; the Caterpillar Garden which was to the north east of the venue, the Madhatter’s Castle set in the middle, and the Queens’s Domain to the south. There was a ferries wheel, drinks, and other “attractions” that were set between the Madhatter’s Castle and the Queen’s Domain.
With the name Beyond Wonderland I was coming to the venue expecting to go down the rabbit hole and find myself in a whole new world. Instead I ended up at the Madhatter’s table sober. Beyond Wonderland was like a bad regurgitation of the Electronic Daisy Carnival. I didn’t feel energy in the air, the ferries wheel and the picnic area seemed like an afterthought, and there wasn’t enough lights… What I mean by not enough lights is that the physical experience wasn’t all there. This is my opinion and I know that it aint fair to compare Beyond Wonderland with EDC. With that said, the sets were amazing! Which is the very reason why people come to these events/raves/festivals. To hear and see their favorite DJ’s perform and fuck them sideways.
Oh man, where do I start? I saw Avicii for the first time and his set was crazy! Craziest part of it was that in the middle of his set, someone ignited a tear gas or let lose a fire extinguisher. I was to the right side of the tent when what ever it was went off and as soon as it did, many of us cleared the tent fast! People were running while covering their face, some were chocking and coughing, and there were still people enjoying the music. So I’m sure that what ever it was, was not tear gas. If it were, I’d be dying and more people would had been affected. The music kept on going and once the ominous cloud cleared, everyone went back in the tent to enjoy the night.
I can’t stop saying how wonderful the DJ’s were. Cazzette, Thomas Gold, and all the other DJ’s that I saw that night. I wished that there was better timing with the different set times and less overlapping. Since there were overlapping set times I caught the tail end of some sets. For example, after Aviccii I went from the Queen’s Domain to the Madhatter’s Castle to catch the end of Chuckie‘s set. I wished that I saw all of Chuckie’s set since he was killing it.
The best DJ of the night would be Sander van Doorn. This. Guy. Killed. It. WOW! Sander’s set at EDC was one of my favorite form that weekend. But the set that Sander played for Beyond was a godly amount better! Holy shit! Can you say wow! Damn, damn, damn. Here’s a tease of Sander’s set from my girlfriend.
I’m thankful that Insomniac brought Beyond Wonderland and these wonderful DJ’s to the Bay Area. Over all the night was bad ass! I know that I’m being ignorant for writing that my ears were ringing the next day but I earned those damage ear drums. Next time I’ll bring ear buds. Which means that next time Beyond Wonderland is up here in the Bay Area, I’m going.
The Stick
Last Sunday I went to the San Francisco’s 49er home opener against the Detroit Lions for Sunday Night Football. The energy of the stadium was great. I even though I am not a San Francisco 49er fan, I did enjoy the game and cheered on the Niners. Hanged out with friends, tail gated, eat good, drank good, my fantasy football team (s) won, Arizona beat the Patriots, and the home team won. What more can I ask for?
Good Times on the Islands
A few days ago, after work, I headed over to both the Yerba Buena Island and Treasure Island to meet up with some friends (Joe Ercoli, Tom Finale, Paul Giani, … Continue reading Good Times on the Islands
Progress on the Bay Bridge
I’ll be going out to Yerba Buena Island today after work to take some photos of the Bay Bridge. I’ve been wanting to take pictures of both the San Francisco span and Oakland span of the Bay Bridge ever since I posted pictures of the bridge on this blog. Joe Ercoli, Tom Finale, James Perez, Paul Giani, Jorman Koon, and I will be making the trek around the island. This time I’ll be taking my GoPro HERO2 and a POS Canon PowerShot ELPH 100 HS since I no longer have my Canon Rebel XSi.
With the GoPro, I’m going to attempt to do a time lapse of the sun setting in the west with the San Francisco Bay Bridge span in the foreground. I haven’t had the chance to pick up the LCD Back for the GoPro so I’ll be shooting blind, technically. I’ve played around with the GoPro enough that I have an idea of what I’ll be capturing.
Once the sun set, we’ll be heading to the east end of the island to take shots of the Oakland span that has both the new Bay Bridge and current Bay Bridge section. There has been a lot of progress done to the new span of the bridge since the last time that I was there on Yerba Buena Island. The bridge now have cables hanging down from the main cable.
The photo above was taken from an ACTransit bus as I was heading to the East Bay. So as you can tell from the Google Map photo from the very top of this post, that when compared to the Instagram photo above, there has been a ton of progress on the new span.
I plan on shooting the Oakland span with the POS Canon. I’m worried about the quality of photos that I’ll get. I hope that it wont be a waste of time trying to shoot with the POS. Actually, I know it wont be a true waste of time since I’ll be seeing friends that I haven’t seen in few months. I do know that the POS is not a DSLR and that the quality will not be as good.
We are just have to stay tuned to see how everything turned out. So stay tuned. Maybe if time permits I’ll post something from tonight’s photo adventure later early tomorrow morning.
Time to Visit Yerba Buena Island. Again.
I’ve been crossing across the Bay Bridge lately and each time I cross the bridge, I feel that it’s time to go take another visit to Yerba Buena Island. From … Continue reading Time to Visit Yerba Buena Island. Again.
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