The Black Angels: Don’t Play with Guns
New album releases in April. Cannot. Wait.
Patti Smith covers Nirvana: Smells like Teen Spirit
I feel stupid. And contagious.
http://grooveshark.com/songWidget.swf
Iron Butterfly: Manhunter Came across this interview with John Cale of the Velvet Underground. Thought I’d share. “Whoever wants to sing a Nico song has to approach it from the right point of view. There’s a lot of love for Nico on that stage, they all really appreciated her for being a songwriter, not because she was the gorgeous member of the Velvet Underground. It’s a different approach.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEW2FwJfaIo
Salt Cathedral (formerly Il Abanico) : Take Me to the Sea
Bill Yonson: Tropical This Chihuahua-born musicias brings a sunny-electro-trop pop dose of an upcoming summer. Beach sunset optional.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPTJvqBp0pI
Milkman ft. Gil Cerezo & Billy Mendez: Oro In the late 90’s I was pretty crazy about the latin/techno-music Kinky from Monterrey, México. The frontman of the band collaborated with a few other well known dudes for this single. Gil used to date Mexican music goddess Ely Guerra awhile back and he was at her show at the Red Devil Lounge on Polk street in 2005. Not sure what the style of this new project is, a bit wacky and the lyrics are rather silly but fun.
Here is the beautiful Ely. I took this foto at her show at the Independent, in 2010:
Bodega, California
Bodega Bay, Sebastopol, Bolinas and Petaluma are my favorite places to go on weekend day trips from time to time, located north of San Francisco.
Taken with my phone, earlier in 2012.
Between West Marin and Petaluma, it is easy to spot farms, cow sightings, cheese factories such as Marin Cheese Co. and Cow Girl Creamery, super delicious food, and all kinds of hidden gems like Wild Flour bakery (info with its photo, below) and while in the small town of Bodega, you can rejoice with the historical film location it is mostly remembered for: Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” (1963).
I visited Bodega a number of times last year. I recently shot almost an entire roll (35mm) while visiting Tippy 🙂 but have yet to scan the negatives. Any scanner recommendations to do that? I’d like to know as I’ve been shopping for a scanner for quite sometime.
My beautiful homestate has so much to offer.
I love it very much. I’m eager to continue travelling whenever possible and visit many states around our country that I have yet to explore.
As I type, the weather is rather strange – in the high 60°sF, not a cloud in the sky and no year-round layering needed. Not to rub it in to any of you in snow conditions, but it is quite beautiful.
Remember, San Francisco summers are not so nice. It is mostly foggy, windy and not very sunny at all.
These photos were between September-October 2012, two of the best months to be anywhere in the Bay Area.
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Most taken with the LX5 SOOTC (Straight out of the camera), the majority in manual mode.
The two above, smaller photos +the video were taken with the phone (HTC Evo).
Hope you enjoy the short fotodiary 2013 sets +have a great weekend.
xxom
Gates to awesomeness.
If you are in the vicinity of Bodega or Petaluma, Wild Flour bread (in Freestone, CA) is a must. It is in-between both towns and note that it is cash only. The garden adjacent to it as pictured below, is divine. They have coffee. This place is just amazing.
Los Californios
Rosemarie, cheese or potato bread I forget, this loaf was awesome as usual. I wolfed the whole thing in record time.
La Muffin hanging out with Alfred y Tippy.
Bat signals.
One of my favorite bars in the whole Bay Area is the Casino bar and Grill. They have the icy glasses for your beer and I don’t eat shell fish, but my meateatarian friends say they are exquisite, oh and with Bacon in them. I dunno, but each is under $3. You gotta visit this place.
Bay Area apropos, you can pay with Square. Please excuse the strange dark picture but I took it with my phone, something about screen lights off-sets everything. BTW Techie nerd alert: Their square reader is black, how cool is that?!
Across the street from the stores, you’ll find the Fire Department station and the Postal Office. This video is from earlier last year captured with my phone. It was a fun travelling band from somewhere in California, headed to Boston. They were doing improvised fundraisers – they sure got everyone dancing.
That is what Eric, a dear friend of wrote to me in an email shared late last year.
Eric is one of our favorite riding buddies in our local circle of riding pals in San Francisco. He’s always got the right snacks and wise words to share. I haven’t gone in any social or long distance rides in the U.S in over 2 years (went to a couple last year in Mexico) but I appreciate his continuing emotional support throughout happy and sad times.
I know when and if the time comes for me to get on a bike again, he, amongst good friends will be more than happy to join me. Eric is always sending me nice emails and notes, so I just wanted to take the time to share this, almost poetic, Dutch video.
I do miss that social and beautiful energy of riding with friends but I am overwhelmed with emotions as I continue to heal and recover from very difficult times, memories and loss.
My priority is to find a peaceful life, a very slow pace and glad to accept my different perspective in this life – which keeps going and developing day by day.
xxom
/Say hello to Eric, he blogs at: Classic lightweight bikes & rides
National Library Day is this Saturday, February 9th.
To celebrate my love of books and libraries, I’m dedicating a quick series of posts on a few San Francisco libraries and coffee shops within walking distance from them, of course.
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Continuing the mini-series of San Francisco Library posts, we move onto two of my favorite branches: the Castro and the Presidio. The latter, is actually not in the Presidio per se, but a few blocks from its Presidio Blvd. southwest entrance.
Youth and Harvey, live forever.
Castro flavor.
Spikes! I super LOVE this coffee shop so much.
16th street between Noe +Sanchez.
✖ Recommended coffee to walk to:
Spike’s on 4117 19th Street at Castro // Mountanos brothers coffee from South City (*I think)
✖ Extra tip: Castro theatre, cable cars, people watching. Have a cocktail at Twin Peaks, they are known for their Irish Coffee.
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Jane Cafe on Fillmore.
Presidio library
3150 Sacramento street
✖ Recommended coffee to walk to:
Jane at 2123 Fillmore // Stumptown coffee
✖ Extra tip: If you walk towards Fillmore on Clay instead of Sacramento, Alta park is a pretty sweet spot of the Northside too find a bench and take in the often foggy views of the City.
View from Alta park just above street level. The more you go up, the more you see.
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How do you like these coffee+book walking recommendations so far?
I’d love to hear your favorite branch or what books you are currently reading.
More coming up later this week, and perhaps next.
xxom
// See the previous set, The Marina and Golden Gate branches here: National Library Day: Part 1
