From the Archives: San Francisco

These are from a trip in the spring of '02. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities and a lot of my favorite pics were from this trip...

First of all a rock stacking, a pic I love. I know Bill Dan does this, but I'm not sure if this is one of his:


I think everyone takes a pic of the 'Jack Kerouac Adler' sign, which runs in between City Lights Books and Vesuvio, two important spots for the Beats:


City Lights has always been a huge advocate of freedom of speach, I was impressed by these banners they hung on their store in the post 9/11 climate of fear and intolerance. At the time I was at the University of Connecticut helping a friend start up a chapter of the War Resisters League and advocating human rights in a very racist and hostile environment. Of course the stakes were raised in the fall when we were preparing to invade Iraq. The pic alone pissed people off, so actually putting these on the store was pretty cool (also a favorite pic of mine):


I was fascinated by this graffiti left over from the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz, I can't beleive the National Park Service never painted over it:


This mural showing solidarity with the people of Chiapas and the Zapatistas was painted on the side of City Lights:


I loved how street signs in Chinatown were bilingual. You can see the sign for the Gold Mountain Monestary in the background (yet another favorite pic):

The Wedge, Mpls

I picture of the famous Bush finger (people have since tried to rip it down) and a sticker responding. You know, with this fool's approval rating hovering around 35% it makes you realize that if most of the people who bitch about him had gone out and voted, we'd have President Kerry to complain about...arggh! What kind of democracy only has a 50% turnout for the presidential election anyway?! At least we Minnesotans managed almost an 80% turnout, with Wisconsin a close second...



On a completely unrelated note, I liked this sign:

From the Archives: Pike Place Market, Seattle

Pike Place Market: sorry, I didn't get a pic of any flying fish.


OK, the Seattle's Best coffee cup pic is pretty cliched, but just so damn Seattle, too. They're really trying to break in to the market here in Mpls, but we all know it's just Starbucks in disguise...



The veggie stand had pretty awesome color...


This wall is in an alley behind/under the market and was completely covered in gum. Don't know why, but it was...

From the Archives: Chinatown, Victoria, BC

Don't be fooled, Victoria is a very friendly town...but I was drawn to this door because of the stickers. Did the paint for the 5, 1, and A come off? Did the apartment number change? Also, If I'm not supposed to enter here, how do I get in?


A pair of giant cement Foo dogs guard the gate to Chinatown...


These dragon things are all over the place, I think it is in response to the orca statues and totem poles all over the rest of town (I have plenty of pics of both)...


I think his is supposed to be the narrowest alley in the world. I've seen some pretty narrow alleys in my day, so I'm not sure if I buy it...

35th and Dight/Hiawatha, Mpls

This area is very industrial and has a few old grain elevators and train yards. It's a pretty interesting glimpse of when we were still the Mill City. The warning of 7 tracks to cross points to how important trains used to be, but there is now a building covering 3 of the tracks...


This door really caught my eye with the meat locker-esque plastic strips blowing around in the wind. I was really tempted to see what's going on in there, but I thought it best to leave it a mystery...


One of the few trains still around, ADM still uses a couple of the buildings here...


Trains are a giant moving canvass to a lot of people, this piece was about 4' x 15', I took a pic of the tags to use here and 10 pics of the piece to use in an assingment...


I thought this was interesting, I wonder, who the beast could possibly be?