Month: April 2008

Movies filmed in San Francisco

In the context of an article about filmmakers avoiding SF because of its expense, SFGate has put together a nice interactive map mashup showing the location of several…

Mural house poll

I used to work at the foot of the Filbert Steps, at Filbert and Sansome. It’s not a an area that’s famous for controversy. Should we feed the…

Top 10 classic Frisco tunes

I’m excluding old music hall / movie songs like “Hello, Frisco” and “O Susanna” (I’m allowing old blues and country tunes though). I’m also excluding contemporary songs like…

SFMOMA rooftop garden

Construction has begun on a new rooftop garden at SFMOMA. Making a virtue of the necessity of providing parking, the museum will install the garden atop the parking…

NBA playoffs

The Warriors got bounced, despite winning more games than any modern team that failed to make the playoffs. It didn’t help that they lost every big game down…

Make a reservation

Go ahead, make a reservation to eat out in Oakland. It’s probably a little safer today than it was yesterday. Oakland has been shaken by a series of…

Don’t call it San-Fran

I’m no Herb Caen, but it looks like my anti-San-Fran movement is picking up an adherent or two. Then again, the authors are “SF-wannabes,” in the arrogant lingo…

Is this the sound of San Francisco?

According to Global Deejays it is. Apparently the sound of San Francisco is sort of techno retro pop, while the visuals associated with the city show the influence…

“Raging Controversy” at the Goldman Awards

Yesterday I attended the Goldman Environmental Prize Awards, as I have done most years since sometime in the early 1990s. The event is held in the city’s beautiful…

Pool garden after two weeks

pool garden at two weeks

Well, three weeks, but we were away on vacation for one. Recently we filled in our swimming pool, which has now become a garden. I had some plants in containers waiting to be transplanted, and I’ve planted a bunch of other stuff as seeds. The garden is still a little raw, but I’m reasonably happy with the progress so far.

Morro Rock

A morro (a Spanish word for pebble) is a rocky outcrop rising from shallow waters — the Sugar Loaf in Rio is one famous example; Morro Rock in…

Hearst Castle gardens

Hearst Castle offers five tours covering different parts of the buildings and grounds. One of these is the garden tour. The gardens are not spectacular, but they are decent examples of the mediterranean style.

At this time in spring, lantana is a prominent feature.

lantana at hearst castle

California poppy

The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), the state flower, blooms profusely along the northern California coast from about February through September. The most common variety is a bright orange…

San Simeon outdoor pool

The outdoor pool at San Simeon epitomizes the site’s southern Spanish Renaissance and gothic style. Construction is primarily of poured concrete, embellished with European antiguities and facsimilies thereof….

Pacific coastline north of Cambria

North of Cambria is a stretch of coastline accessed by Moonstone Drive. The drive is dotted with motels. As along much of California’s coast, highway 1 is all…

Lampton Cliffs County Park, Cambria, central California coast

Just down the road from the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve in Cambria on the central California coast is a small country park called Lampton Cliffs. The park features a…