Wandering Wednesday - Fort Mason

 

A couple weeks ago, we went to San Francisco, to pick up the runner's bib for my DH to participate in the 5K segment of the SF Marathon. Fort Mason is always so interesting, a lot of creative re-use of a military supply base happening.

I really love this color of the bay in this picture.

This is looking out over Gashouse Cove and one of the yacht marinas towards the Golden Gate Bridge.

I like this view towards to the bay between two of the buildings. We visited FLAX arts and one of the many small museums.

We had lunch at a restaurant I'd always wanted to try out, Greens. It's a vegetarian place with amazing views of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco Bay. I had the Summer Squash Pupusas, that came with pickled beets and avocado. So beautiful, and very very tasty.

I tried to get a photo that included the bridge but the windowpanes defeated me almost exactly. Oh well, it wasn't that great of a shot because of the sort of gloomy afternoon.

We talked ourselves into getting dessert, which was amazing, and not to be missed. This was a blueberry, lavender mousse, with a shortbread-y type of crust.

DH was very happy to get his swag bag for participating in the SF Marathon.

Wandering Wednesday - SF MOMA

 Time for a Wandering Wednesday, this time to SFMOMA. I really enjoyed my visit, going to see art in person, especially when it is so much larger than on one's computer screen or in a book is always a big part of the excitement. 

I've always loved Yayoi Kusama's work, especially her love of pumpkins and polka dots. Getting to see her enormous, exciting, Aspiring to Pumpkin’s Love, the Love in My Heart    in person was so great. 

Couldn't get the whole piece in my picture, because it's rather wide and there were a lot of people.

Finally got to experience one of the infinity rooms by Yayoi Kusama.  Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity, I Would Offer My Love (2023)  All I can say is wow! And that the pictures truly do not do this justice.

You get let into the cube with a small group, and you have exactly two minutes. It's completely worth the wait in line.

Glad I remembered to "always look up".

The Alexander Calder exhibit with many of his mobiles is always so peaceful. I just love watching the movement of the shadows.

Ended my visit with a late lunch at the museum cafe, including this lovely mocktail with butterfly pea blossom powder.

Wandering Wednesday - Over the Bridge

It was one of those foggy days on the Golden Gate Bridge last week going over to San Rafael to drop my quilt off with Colleen Granger. I think I take this picture every time I am a passenger going over. But it looks different every time. It's still exciting because I don't go over it all that often.

 Taking side streets back because of traffic we came to a T intersection with this in front of us. We both gasped at the beauty. From far away it looked like a mosaic or mural on a wall and then it became stairs as we got closer.

 It's a fairly new (2015) tiled staircase up to Lincoln Park, also known as the Lincoln Park Steps, next door to Katherine Delmar Burke private girl's school. It's just a gorgeous Beaux Arts design in ceramic tile, beautiful execution. Public works like this are remarkable.

Wandering Wednesday - Club Fugazi

 We finally got to see Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco, it's been playing for 45 years (and is in its final year!). This was our holiday present from my parents, it was really fun to go with them to laugh and enjoy this show. I'm enjoying our new tradition of giving experiences instead of things. That way we get to spend time with them and go see and do things we normally wouldn't!

 The show is located in North Beach, which means there's a Bank of America building holding down one of the main street corners. I thought this ornamental design was beautiful.

 I always forget that North Beach is right next door to Chinatown, and thus our parking space in the garage had a "fortune".

This is the outside of Club Fugazi, I wonder what it's like living in the house right next door, 17,000 performances of BBB, lines of people on the street, the noise of the performance, etc. I suppose you'd get used to it, because it looks like a really nice neighborhood to live in.

Wandering Wednesday: SF Opera at the Ballpark

 It took a long while to get really dark at the San Francisco Opera at the Ballpark simulcast this year. It got cold pretty fast though, but our seething at the incorrigible and horrible Don Giovanni kept us warm.

 When the masqueraders appeared, we couldn't stop laughing, those headdresses were probably four feet high, and were maybe feathered? The singing and performances were divine, what a story.

 I'm so bad at scenic couple selfies, I try, but the angle is always hard to get. At least we're both smiling. And yes, Marc is wearing a SF Opera ball cap. He went to get drinks and came back with a hat, giggling about the opera having a ball cap the whole way.It is pretty funny.

 Son Alex and his Zoe, photo credit to my dad.

 My parents! They're the ones that got us going to this every year. I'm glad I was raised up listening to opera, thanks!

 I like the blurry background of this one, looking over McCovey Cove back towards the park.

The Bay Bridge lights as seen through an instagram filter.

I Can See Everything From Up Here

 We recently made it up to San Francisco to see a Giants game.  It was a beautiful day, alas we lost the game, but it was still a fun trip.  AT&T park is so beautiful, even if the game gets boring there is still lots to look at out on the bay.  Our seats were one row away from the very top of the stadium, but a good view of the game.

 McCovey Cove had a lot of ships coming in and out during the game.  At one point they had dueling/jousting paddleboarders up on the big screen which was hilairious.

I had to take a picture of one of the strangest batting stances I've ever seen, Aaron Rowand.  I guess it works for him though!  Once our tv Giants announcers said he looked like a constipated penguin, which I thought was pretty accurate.

 The boys in their borrowed t-shirts with my mom.  Going to see the game with everyone was her birthday present from us this year.  She taught me to love the Giants and baseball as a kid, so it is really fun to get to go see a game in person now and then with her!  Zach was really impressed with how into it Grandma was, he's not too into following baseball unfortunately. One of my failures as a mother, oh well...

Yes it was a chance to wear my orange hat!

Treasure Island

This past Sunday we went to The Treasure Island Music Festival in the middle of the San Francisco Bay on, you guessed it Treasure Island, (the island that the Bay Bridge goes through). It is a Naval station, but they let them use it for this festival, this is the third year I think, and we'd heard it was a fun show to go to. It was what is currently called an indie/folk/rock show, there were plenty of hipsters, freaks and just plain folks there on a pretty, cold, foggy, windy day. There were a lot of bands slated to play that my boys like a lot, one that I love to pieces, so it made it worth the attempt. My brother joined us too which was really cool!

I copied this picture off the local music website Bridged because it has the three boys in it, there they are towards the back working on some communal art. The three boys are my two teenagers Alex and Zach and their friend Jake. I didn't take my own picture of them because I figured they'd be pissed off at me, but a passing stranger, no problem ,right.

The first band we caught was Vetiver, which is a local SF band. They were really good, folk/rock type of music. Up in the bleacher section of VIP seating were some really cool monsters. We saw them again on stage at the very end of the show.

The bigger stage had a great video screen as a background, where they showed closeups of the bands that were playing. Nice since we couldn't really see their faces too well from as far away as we were.The first group on the big stage that we caught was Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes. Alex Ebert, the lead singer seemed, well, um, let's say really really out of it, (like maybe not quite knowing where he was) but he sang the songs kind of quietly, took most of his clothes off (it was freezing and windy!) and the rest of his group gamely soldiered on and backed him up. Especially the woman up on the big screen here, I believe her name is Jade Castrinos. She had an absolutely gorgeous voice and the most adorable smile and dimples, they should have had her sing more. They did one love song/duet "Home" that had me in tears it was such a touching song.
I think this is the best picture I took all day, catching their drummer Josh Collazo, right in mid-stroke, hair flying.

A view of San Francisco across the bay and through the fog.
There were several other bands that we saw all of or part of their sets, but I didn't photograph for one reason or another, Grizzly Bear (one of my new favorites), Bob Mould, Beirut, Yo La Tengo, The Walkmen.

And finally, sunset zoomed past into dark, and The Reason for me to be at this show, The Decemberists took the stage. They performed their newest release The Hazards of Love from beginning to end, completely, perfectly and even better than I'd imagined they could. Amazing stuff. Not for everyone though. If you liked 70's prog rock/story songs and like the current indie/folk stuff I'd recommend it. The crowd really got into it, especially during the bloody and thoroughly vile song "The Rake's Song" all singing along while 5 of the band members pounded out the rhythm on various drums.

I tried zooming in for some good pictures, but that just made it worse, but still of course pretty because of all the cool colored lights used on stage. The big video screen behind the band showed a really beautiful/weird animated/live-action video that went along with the music. A lot of it was gorgeous and suited the music really perfectly, some of the rest was a bit too abstract. They are going to release a DVD of this video along with the Hazards of Love music that it goes with, it will be called "Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized". Hopefully in time for the holidays, hint hint.

So blurry, but so beautiful anyways.

The blurriest yet, guess I was really just enjoying the show! I took a few videos, and the music part turned out ok, but the poor camera was trying to focus on the closest things (ie peoples' hands going up in front of me), so they aren't worth showing you here.

Standing behind Alex and Jake, as The Flaming Lips take the stage. We also got to hang out with Jake's parents and aunt, which was really fun, made it a grown-up outing as well as a family outing. It was great to be able to go to a rock concert with our kids, and also be able to let them roam around on their own and feel pretty good about it since they were sticking together. I don't know how much longer we'll be "allowed" to be near them at a concert, or if we'll keep liking the same music, but for now, it is a fun thing to do as a family and with our friends.

Alex and his friend Jake with the blazing Flaming Lips light show in the background. They're wearing the freebie headbands emblazoned "winner" and "loser" that they scored at the show. I think this is Alex's "Mom, stop bothering me and let me watch the show" look.

The glowing ball at the center contains the lead singer of The Flaming Lips, Wayne Coyne. He is inside a giant, see-through blow up beach ball that he then tries to walk in, right on top of the crowd. He mostly ended up crawling because I suppose it is really hard to stay upright when you're rolling around on top of the crowd's heads. It was a trip. And hilarious too. Just like the rest of their show, really funny, fun and energetic.

I hope that next year's lineup is this good, I think I'd like to go again.

Opera At The Ballpark

Opera at the Ballpark! What a funny idea, right? A simulcast of a live opera being performed in the San Francisco Opera House to the Giants baseball stadium just across the city. Luckily for me, my parents listen to the classical radio station that was sponsoring this event, so I knew about it and we got to go with them. I grew up hearing opera all the time, and one of my great-uncles was actually an opera singer. One of my favorite memories was seeing him perform in The Barber of Seville.

The boys had never seen an opera and I thought it was about time. Plus this event was priced really well, ie, FREE.

We stood in a super long line to be able to sit down on the field. As a baseball fan I think this was the most thrilling part of the evening for me, getting to sit at the edge of the warning track out at the edge of center and right field.There were about 25,000 people there in the ballpark, and it was stunning how quiet it was during the opera. I was worried it would be as noisy as a baseball game but people were really engaged with the performance.

Even though it was dark out, the sky looks blue in this picture, maybe because of the very bright stadium lights.As we sat there waiting for it to begin, I was worried they wouldn't turn out the big lights that illuminate the field. We wouldn't have been able to see the screen very well, and it would have been bad to be looking into that brightness for so long. But nope, they turned those out as the performance began and left some smaller lights on.

This is my favorite picture of my foot and the boys feet. We took turns running into the padded outfield wall pretending to catch fly balls. Too fun.
The opera performed was Il Trovatore by Verdi (The Troubadour) which has so many plot twists and turns, sword duels, the famous "Anvil Chorus" and a great surprise ending. The leads were amazing singers as well as actors. We were all impressed with the sound system and how good it looked up on the big screen. It was almost like being there live! But more fun because we got to go on the baseball field and lay down and be casual which one most certainly does not get to do at the opera house!

We'll definitely be going again next year.