Winter Swoosh

"The problem with winter sports is that

...follow me closely here.. 

they generally take place in winter."

~Dave Barry

Okay, so I don't absolutely hate winter. In fact, I kinda love winter. That is the one time of the year when California is most likely to see actual weather. Rain, cold breezes, even the occasional decent dusting on snow on Grizzly Peak Boulevard or other slightly higher peaks around the Bay Area! But one of my favorite parts of the colder months actually begins in late autumn, just before Thanksgiving, when all the area ice skating rinks open for the holidays. 

I just had to fit autumn in there a little.

Anyway, the rinks usually stay open a couple weeks into January, and it just wouldn't be the holiday season if we couldn't go to Embarcadro Center or Union Square and watch folks swoosh on the ice. Oh how I wish I could join them, but I never learned how, and now with my arthritic knee it would probably be impossible, but it's okay. Sometimes watching someone else have fun is just as fun as actually participating! I love watching the young ones, trying to teach the parental ones. That always makes me smile!

Swoosh.

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Baby It's Cold Outside! + Art About Town: San Francisco "The Tulip"

"December's wintry breath is already clouding the pond, frosting the pane, obscuring summer's memory..."

~John Geddes

It rained on Friday night! It also rained in the wee early hours of Saturday morning! Snow had been predicted on and off all day Friday, and I really got my hopes up, but alas, there was NO snow come early Saturday morning. Well, at least, not where I live. In fact, you had to drive all the way down to Mount Hamilton to find snow, and that was at the very top of the mountain, at the Lick Observatory. 
Oh well. At least it cleaned the air, and made for an absolutely beautiful Saturday! Crossing the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, you could see forever! 

I was tempted to ask Alan if he wanted to head over to Marin County for the day, after we finished at the Embarcadero, but I was a bit tired, so we just made it an early afternoon and came home and cuddled. We don't get Saturdays together very often, but I talked him into playing hooky so we could play in the snow. When it didn't come, we decided to just go with Plan B. That's what this year has been all about you know, Plan B! LOL. But am I complaining? Well... yes... but I am also thanking my lucky stars! Life is just one long adventure! You just have to go with it!

Saturday December 7th, 2013

It's Not Autumn Yet!


The Embacadero Center


Embarcadero Center Ice Rink



Art About Town: San Francisco... "The Tulip" By John C. Portman


I love this sculpture. I photograph it every chance I get! It can be seen from all over the Embarcadero, while on the ferry and from Treasure/Yerba Buena Island. It stands three stories tall, and at night makes a lovely appearance outlined in tiny, clear lights. I have done posts about this sculpture before, but each year I have to revisit it and photograph it especially for the holidays! I only wish my photographs of it did it any real justice! It's breathtaking!

It was a good day! A crisp, bright, beautiful day, and time with the love of your life, what more can a girl ask for?

Mood: Very Happy!

~Me :)

Embarcadero Center Art Walk #2: "Chronos XIV"

(Chronos XIV By Nicholas Schoffer, 1975)

"In the haunted house of life, art is the only stair that doesn't squeak."

~Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs And All

Embarcadero Center Self-Guided Sculpture Tour

The title of this sculpture is Chronos XIV, by Nicholas Schoffer. Consisting of stainless steel, it was brought over from France in 1975 by a Boeing 747. It was sent in pieces and assembled on the site in the Embarcadero Center where it stands today. It is located in 2EC near Sacramento Street. The sculpture is 64 feet tall, and has 49 light projectors that shine on 65 movable discs. Nicholas Schoffer is considered the father or cybernetic art. His CYSP 1 (1956) is considered the first cybernetic sculpture in art history because of its use of electronic computations and was developed by Phillips electronics.

:)

Feeling: Quiet

~Me :)

Embarcadero Center Art Walk #1 "Blocks" + Finding Faces In Unusual Places

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see."

~Edgar Degas


(Blocks, Anne Van Kleeck, 1971 Bronze)


It's time to revisit my love of public art! A couple weeks ago, while Alan and I were at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, I had the opportunity to not just photograph the happenings at the Holiday Ice Rink, but to also take in some of the public art that peppers the Embarcadero Center! It's been way too long since I spent any time searching out public art installations around the bay, so I am thrilled to be able to revisit one of my favorite subjects! While the photographs in this post are   technically a part my 2012 collection of photos, I had planned to post them sometime after the new year, so they are new to 2013! Shrug... ;)

Finding Faces In Unusual Places...

Okay, now for a little fun! Tell me, do you see the face? Go ahead, take a good look before scrolling down. I see a face. Alan saw a face in a different place than I did. And the face he saw was kinda spooky, and now I see that one also! How about you? Do you see a face? How about two faces? Three maybe?



"I want to meet a guy named Art. Take him to a museum, hang him on the wall, criticize him, and leave."

~Jarod Kintz, I Want

I love finding faces! 2012 was a very good year for finding faces in unusual places. Thank goodness they were friendly... right? Because I would rather not find demonic ones that people on shows about the supernatural tend to see! LOL! But on the other hand, I have always wanted to see a ghost!

Hmmm... Whimsy? Or Spooky? Whimsy? Or Spooky?

Couldn't we all use a little more Wimsy?

The Embarcadero Center Art Walk has 19 pieces of art. This is the first of the series. I hope to post a new photo about every couple weeks or so. I will also be seeking public art around the bay, and bring you many different views! If you decide to do your own series on public art, please let me know! Leave me the link in the comment thread so I can come by and see what you come up with!

~Happiness!

Click to download a copy of the Embarcadero Art Walk Self Guided Tour!

~Me :)

The Day After The Day The World Didn't End

"If the world were merely seductive, the would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."

~E.B. White

Last Friday was supposed to be the end. And not just the end, it was supposed to be THE END OF ALL THINGS. Sigh. I have had mixed thoughts about that. On the one hand, there was a side to me that would be thankful to never have to hear hateful retoric. I could be happy to never hear about the murder of any child ever again, or justifications and excuses about why there is nothing that can be done to get assault weapons off the street.

On the other hand I would love to live long enough to see the world change for the better. I would be happy to just be able to see as many amazing sunsets as possible, and photograph as many cats and kittens as possible. Now that I have flown in a single engine Cessna, I want to fly in a helocoptor. That would be awesome. But to be able to do those things, the world must go on.

So, the question is...

Is it worth it? Is the world not ending worth it?

I don't know...

But I know my camera never lies to me.

With camera in hand, here is what I saw on December 21st, & 22nd 2012.

12/21/12
 


12/22/12






:)




What is it about watching other people have fun, that makes you feel all warm and happy inside? I saw parents with their children ice skating, and smiling. Happiness was all around. I think there was definitely a lot of love everywhere I went, and an air of gratefulness about being able to hold your family close. It's more than understandable, in fact isn't it what this time of year is all about? It made me sad to look up at the clock on the Ferry building, and see the American flag still flying at half staff, and know that the last of those children were buried yesterday, but it really warmed my soul and lifted my spirits to see all that love between families, being shared with everyone who stopped long enough to notice.

I noticed. The clock, and the passage of time, had quite a message.

:)

And as that one particular dad and daughter, who careened out of control on the ice and came barreling at me at great speed, we three were already laughing as they hit the side of the rink up close and personal with me. LOL. Strangers 30 seconds earlier, now friends in humor, and shared smiles.

Who would have thought that the END OF THE WORLD could result in such life affirming joy?

"Where there is love there is life."

~Mahatma Gandhi

~Happiness!

Next!

"I don't just look at the thing itself or at the reality itself; I look around the edges for those little askew moments-kind of like what makes up our lives... those slightly awkward, lovely moments."

~Keith Carter

It's officially midnight, well it is at least on the East Coast, so I am calling the rest of the day December 11th! Another December 10th has come and gone, and as far as I can tell, we made it through this year without any strange goings on. Cool! Okay, steady on then...

I will be doing some photography in San Francisco and Pacifica later today. I am hoping to end the day with at least 200 all new images for the files. Wish me luck!

Here is a preview of what I will be working on...

Public Art...

Yin and Yang
By Robert Armeson
The second of the Egghead series, they symbolize Passiveness and Aggressiveness.




I love Yin and Yang. I find them amazingly fun and thought provoking. But that's what its all about... right?

;)

"Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second."

~Marc Riboud

Okie Doke. I think maybe I beat the curse this year... but then again I did that one year to. I guess I won't really know if I beat it until December 9th 2013. Damn that seems like a long way off! But of course next year about this time I will be asking myself.... where did the time go? LOL. I will keep you posted.

Now, on to the Curse Of December 24th! That's my favorite curse anyway! So, all I have to say is...

NEXT! :)

Stay Tuned!

At Long Last... The Parrots Of San Francisco

"God took the beauty of the Bay of Naples, the Valley of the Nile, the Swiss Alps, the Hudson River Valley, rolled them into one and made San Francisco Bay."

~Fiorello La Guardia



Something of a miracle... well... a miracle for me anyway, took place yesterday. You see, I have been searching for the famous feral parrots of Telegraph Hill for, I don't know, forever! Well, actually, I heard about the mysterious parrots in the late summer of 2004, and since them I have searched, and searched, and for whatever reason, I could never find them. I researched the most likely places to see them, and even did some following on Twitter of folks who would post up to the minute updates, and it always seemed that by the time I got to the locations, they were gone. I thought I had hit pay dirt late last summer when Woody Allen was in town filming his summer 2012 project. I had been following Woody sightings around town, when one Tweeter commented that they had missed Woody at Gaspare's in the Richmond district, but did happen to come upon a large number of the famous parrots feasting on some wild red berries a few blocks away. Well, by the time I saw the tweet, and got to the city, there wasn't a parrot to be found, and the tree they had reportedly been feasting on, was... well... picked clean. Not a single red berry was left on the tree.

I was so disappointed to not only have missed Woody Allen, but the parrots as well! A double bummer! LOL. I thought about my poor luck all those years. I had visited Telegraph Hill many times, and never saw a single parrot. I hung out at Justin Herman Plaza... no luck. I read about a nice population that was hanging out in Golden Gate Park... but apparently not on the days I visited. It was more than a little disappointing to read about tourists going home with all kinds of magnificent photos of the birds, sometimes with them resting on the bird watchers outstretched hands. Sigh. It was getting to me. I considered, on that hot August day last summer, the distinct possibility that I would need to give up. For whatever reason, I would not be seeing the parrots. Perhaps there was some cosmic reason. Who Knows? All I knew was, ... it wasn't going to happen!

But yesterday, that all changed. Alan and I decided to shake off the stress of the day, and head over to the city for some fun. We planned to grab a toasted cheese sandwich, and a hot beverage, and go to the Embarcadero Center to watch the ice skaters frolic about. When we turned off the bridge, we turned onto the Howard street, then headed toward the embarcadero. The lighting was wonderful, everything looked slightly blue, due to the layer of mist and fog. It's one of my favorite conditions to photograph the city in. That misty fog gives the city a cool romantic look, and it never ceases to make me smile. When I was done with shooting new subjects along the waterfront, we made our way back to the plaza, and as we turned the corner onto Washington, we heard a joyful noise... it was the sound of 40 or so of the famous parrots playing/perching/singing happily among the trees of Sue Bierman park...









Eventually we did get over to the ice rink, and I did a lot of photography there as well. Not as much as I had planned to do, but I am happy with what I got done. More than happy... ecstatic! Alan and I are going back over to the city sometime next week, and I will do more in and around Embarcadero Center. There is a lot to see and photograph. Lots of public art, and the last of the autumn in the trees, the ice skaters of course, and hopefully those magnificent parrots!



Wish me luck!

Happiness!

~Me :)

"Two days in this city is worth two months in New York."

~Robert Menzies

To learn more about the parrots, visit the link below...
Parrot Pages

A Night Out With Alan

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."

-Vincent Van Gogh

Alan and I had a date the other night. We date often, and I think it's one thing that has kept us young at heart. It's not really important where we go, or what we do, but it is important that we leave work, and the day to day details of life behind. No ranting about how completely stupid George Bush really is, and no ranting about how completely stupid Alan thinks George Bush really is either! LOL. Honestly, if you think I am bad, you should hear him rant sometime. LOL. He makes me laugh when he makes fun of Bush and Cheney, and when I laugh, down goes the blood sugar. Alan is good for me. :)

Anyway, back to the night out. We love going into San Francisco and exploring, but this time of year we actually haunt a couple of neighborhoods religiously. One of our favorite spots is Justin Herman Plaza. From early November through the end of December, there is the added attraction of the Holiday Ice Rink. Its fun to watch the skaters, mostly families sharing time together, having fun. :) It's life affirming. We usually watch from rink level, but this year we decided to also watch from the third level of the Embarcadero Center. It was cold, but it couldn't have been more fun.

Afterwards we walked around the plaza and did some window shopping, and a little dreaming I suppose. We talked about this Christmas, and how it is his year to make me breakfast in bed. I have earned it. I usually stay up all night, wrapping packages, and chatting with my best friend H. P. so it's kind of fun to make something delicious, and then climb into bed with Alan and have breakfast before he leaves for work. This year, however, Alan has the day off, so, I will probably still chat with H. P., but I will probably go to bed a little earlier then I usually do, and wake up a little later in the morning to a nice warm breakfast. :) I'm looking forward to that. :)

After we got the details for Christmas worked out, we made another date to comeback here in a couple weeks. We will probably do some shopping here, and then hop over to Union Square to do some night photography. All the decorations are up throughout of the city, so there are lots of opportunities to get in some time with the camera. I need a lot more practice with my night photography. It's really nice when he brings his camera along, honestly, he takes the most wonderful photographs. I wish he would start blogging again, but with his current schedule it would be difficult. Still, he may have to make a guest appearance here on Ellipsis. We'll see.

And now, into the night...

The San Francisco skyline, as seen from Treasure Island. All the buildings in the Embarcadero area is outlined to look like packages for the holidays. :) This photo really doesn't do the scene justice. :)

The view of the city looking south, toward Mission street.

The View from the third floor of the Embarcadero Center.

Beautiful, fun, and the it has the gorgeous Ferry Building in the background. :)

"The Tulip" is designed by artist, John C. Portman Jr. It is outlined in lights, and spans three stories. An amazing piece of art. One of my favorite pieces along the Embarcadero.

All decorated for the holidays, this over crossing is a lovely place to grab a sandwich and a hot beverage, and watch the world go by.

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-OndineMonet
"Skating In The City"
Embarcadero Center
Justin Herman Plaza
San Francisco, California
December 3, 2007
Early Evening