This was the scene from the top of Bernal Hill tonight (sped up 2000%).
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October was so busy, I didn’t get to put much here. As a cheap substitute here are some pictures from my life from this month:
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Twelve hours after the biggest lightning storm I ever saw in San Francisco (rattling windows and car alarms going off), I took a picture of the morning aftermath to remember it by. And now I am late for work.
Another year, another Silian Rail Poster. In a good way of course. I very much enjoy working with Eric and Robin who both share the highly fortunate personality trait of trusting their artistic collaborators. I think this comes across in their music as a sort of highly complex but refined sense of balance. Even their sense of gender is equal in a way most music isn’t and not just the even number of boys (1) and girls (1), but something more along the lines of a harmonious male and female presence.
Anyway I am back into halftones, with some serious questions to be answered. So this’ll help me.
The original mock up:
Printed layer 1: CYAN
Another winter, another drawn out slog though ever shortening days.
This year, in addition to the usual pattern of increasingly diminishing daylight, I have for whatever reason also been paying attention to the actual path of that low December sun.
And until recently I was doing a good job of keeping this new routine rooted in tangible, real life experience. Then the internet seized hold.
Did you know that in these parts, the sun goes from reaching a maximum angle of elevation in the sky of almost a 70° in June to less than 25° now. Not only that, but the total travel of the east to west path from sunrise to sunset goes from well over 240° in the summer to 150° now. (The sunset doesn’t even make it past due west after September). All the details can be interpolated on this chart:
The positive trade off is the angular, more horizontal moving light. The sunset lasts a lot longer and the golden hour is like an hour long, even if the hour in question starts at 4:30. And of course one of the best things about the west coast is that the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean, the biggest thing in the world. It’s been pretty striking to watch this year and I have collected some photos. I suppose that’s the point here.
Cue the clickable content:
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I just came back to town from a family road trip through the southwest. This humongous electrical storm rolling through Beatty, Nevada was a highlight of the trip.
As seen from the Stagecoach hotel and casino parking lot:
(The bolt at the very end of the clip is the best one)
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Woah! Today’s stormy morning took down one of Folsom Streets beautiful and humungous Chinese Elms.
It was so big, the entire street was blocked.
Also--not to make everything about me, but the way this tree took down a 1992 Toyota Camry with it was eerily reminiscent of the the way my own was hit by a Chinese Banyan on Hyde Street five years ago.
The aftermath.
This made me think of the Urban Forest Map, which is internet information overload at its best.
Dispatch from the San Pablo Bay tusnami:
(San Pablo Bay 3/11/11)
We lucked out this time.
As your supreme leader, I order it illegal to complain that San Francisco doesn’t have seasons, enforced by a one hundred coconut fine. It’s okay if you don’t like the San Francisco seasons or find them different than what you might be used to, but people who say that San Francisco doesn’t have seasons either just got here or haven’t been outside yet. Amateur hour!
(In a fantasy world that I created in my head, I am supreme leader of San Francisco. Much like a clinical schizophrenic, I created this fantasy world because it is too difficult for me to live in reality, where lots of people know more about the city than I do. Oh, and I run my city in the model of the Kingdom of Jordan.)
My point is that Sunday was the typical SFs winter day: wet, beautiful, and teeming with life. Bernal Hill was bright green and there was a five pound rump roast on the BBQ.
Bernal Hill
South Van Ness Ave
A soggy pooch
feather 2 pixel tip riders know that I am a sucker for atmospheric phenomena. Therefore I present the Monday morning office view immediately preceding today’s soul sucking commute.
No more February Light? No problem, apparently:
The view from the ol’ office today. Sun setting behind Mt. Tamalpais in the background, “No Photography” sign in the foreground.
It’s been the worst commuting week of my life. Storms every day with a near death experience on the Bay Bridge yesterday. Basically the rain starts when I leave home and ends right before I get to work. I know, I know: everything’s all about me. But I have the rainbow pix to prove it.
At home:
At work:
(Just in time for the gay marriage trial.)
Some exciting recent multimedia content:
Tahoe:
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The Ocean Beach Christmas tree burn:
Inner Richmond storm aftermath:
