:: BerDerp™ ::

This weekend was the last day to catch the “Land of A Million Cereal” by Ryan Alexiev that was held at Mission 17 gallery, and was certainly the first cereal based exhibit I had ever attended.

Each piece took over a week, and apparently Trix cereal is the moneyshot when it comes to getting various slices of the color wheel. At least cereal is way cheaper than paint.

drawn from the Ravenna Mosaics

cereal skull

more from the Ravenna Mosaics

There are 5,000 images of cereal boxes on this wall, of which, 2,000 are unique.

With over 400 types of cereal on the market he has plenty to choose from.

Over in the hills of Noe Valley, lies Seward Minipark. This park was initially created back in the 1970’s and has certainly remained a unique SF hidden gem – with its double-barrelled, concrete twisting tubes nestled into this woodsy enclave – you have the chance to be a kid again for a few minutes . There are talks of some crazy aproned witch that chases all the fun-seekers away, but we didn’t encounter that. Just a few kids, their parents, and some other hipsters like ourselves.

Does the word “Superflat” mean anything to you? or Mr. DOB? Maybe Hiropon Factory? If none of this is familiar — welcome to the vast, enigmatic world of Takashi Murakami. Born in Tokyo in 1963 Murakami is often billed as the Japanese Warhol. With his roots initially in Nihonga — which is a merger of Western and Eastern styles dating back to 19th century — Murakami wound up entrenched into the world of otaku and became one of the first artist to make paintings from his own portfolio of digital clip art. This combination of art and computing led him to a pictorial style that dismisses the illusion of depth and perspective. This created Superflat — not to say this approach was revolutionary because Warhol’s paintings often read flat — but Murakami has a different perspective. Superflat captures today. The here and now. The digital billboards. The PDA’s The iPhone’s.

pic below is of “FlowerBall (in 3-D)”

She goes by the name of Miss Ko2 (Project ko2) .. how iconic!

But Superflat is more than that. Much more. It is an art movement consisting of part otaku culture, part Postmodernity Americanization, and another part Japanese post-war nationalism. Confusing to an average, casual art fan — but its implications resounds on many more levels. Think for example how Japanese typical landscapes actually are in contemporary films or comics — filled with 7-elevens, cell phones, McDonalds, etc.. they are all of American origin. But really… Superflat just is a world with no depth. No “camera-eye”. No perspective.

Murakami strives very hard to take marketization of his world into international territories which he has done increasingly since early 2001. His cross-contamination of anime/manga characters into museum galleries around the world opened up the discourse on modern Japanese culture and its historical connections to its past.

Louis-Vuitton and Murakami collaborative bags can cost you a hot $5k.

it started off early this morning…

then I found myself gazing down on ranges in Wyoming

fields in Nebraska

zoned out to clear blue

munched on Terra Blue while on the Blue

finally greeted with full sensory over-load.

Okay it’s late.. more soon.

No big posting today.. I’m recovering still from the 5th Annual SF Crawfish Boil that was held yesterday with quite success. I will have some pictures posted here but I’m looking for more. Please send or link to some here if you have some to contribute.

My boy invited Frankie Chu along yesterday, so while Frankie was grubbin on some crawdads, I got to rock the sign for a bit and tap into the 785 gazillion galaxies he was riding that day. Tight huh?!!? When have you EVER, EVER seen anyone (except for my boy plug1) but Frankie carrying his sign?! ;) berDerP!

In the 1947 flick, Dark Passage, we see Mr. Bogart in one of his non-investigative movies, in which he stars opposite (for the 3rd time) of Lauren Bacall. It was a very high profile film at the time, but not very successful. However, SF was used as the location shoot which provided a very moody setting showing Bogart running around the city trying to escape cops and handle his other business.

At 1360 Montgomery there stood an Art Deco apartment building that was featured in the film. This was actually the Malloch Apartment building standing at 4 stories, was the home of Bacall’s character. During the filming on Telegraph Hill, the private booth at The Shadows Restaurant, was supposedly reserved for the Bogey and Bacall.

In the early 90’s there was a landslide and the original building had to be demolished and now this stands in its place.

On Sunday, a former coworker of mine invited me along for a $100 hamburger..($95 on fuel that is and $5 on food).. a nice afternoon flight over to Monterey to just gorge on lunch??? Count me in. Plus the visibility on Sunday was a great day to hit the skies. Monterey here we come!

She is just known as N4769T. A 4-seater Cessna R182 that will carry us to our destination. Time to wake her up.

First, we go over the checklist

E’erthing checked out.. lets go!

We cruise down towards the bottom of the Bay, over Foster City, towards Castle Rock State Park and over Santa Cruz..

we make it to Monterey pretty quick …total airtime was around 30 minutes

prepare to land…

Once in Monterey, we caught a cab towards a local fav spot for hamburgers.. however, after a quick few minutes in the taxi it was glaringly evident that our driver had no idea of where we were going — plus we weren’t helping the matter by not having a name, only an intersection. After a $25 cab that basically went in a circle.. we wound up at at a golf club.. sat outside, and had a $10 hamburger instead of the original $5 hamburger. We enjoyed the breeze and laughed at the golf players. I shoulda taken a pic of said hamburger but you know what that looks like.

The route back we decided to plunge up the coastline and swoop around by Golden Gate. You will have to come back tomorrow for the remainder of the pics…

but here’s a teaser of the Bay Bridge.. (if you haven’t picked up yet that my camera stinks, I ran outta juice mid-flight back and on sum pics had to resort to cellphone cam .. berdERp!)

Caught this kid poppin these tricks on the EMB this evening on a pre-Giants game stroll (they got ripped by STL btw, 8-2 yikes!) …

ollie-backside-to-grind.

camera isn’t good enough to catch this in its entirety.

Nothing to say here but deez shoes be flossin’..

“…beware the Brides of March…”

As the story goes, 10 years ago, the bride below with the cigar, wandered into a thrift store and spotted several worn and tossed bridal gowns. The idea came to him to start a Brides of March event — essentially a raucous-street-march + bar – hoppin’-jewelry -store-crashin’-extravaganza that causes pedestrians and traffic to stop and stare. Well.. sometimes the traffic is forced to stop.. what can i say.. its a parade. Each year it swells in capacity and tourists fortunate enough to catch this procession are left scratching their heads and cleared of any uncertainty that SF is a unique city in its own right.

Lo and behold just down the street a real wedding was actually just winding up. Little did they know a surprise was waiting on them outside.

“We want the bride! We want the bride!” the crowd chanted

Definitely not what the parents had planned on for their baby girl’s speshul day

No wedding is complete without a Wedding Planner

The force is strong here

sippin on sum sizzurp

So on Thursday I told you that I was grinding on new turf. Part of this new turf holds the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which I noticed holds a publicly available tour on Fridays. Anyone can go. So go I did.

I’m not going to delve into a history of the Federal Reserve Bank, what it does, how it came into play, etc.. because you can go attend the tour yourself (but don’t expect to hear much about Jeckyll Island). Although I HIGHLY encourage you to do your homework as you will learn some interesting information that you weren’t taught in school.

What I will show you is something rather remarkable: a $100,000 US Treasury note that was printed in 1934 with Wilson’s image emblazoned across it. This note was actually never released to the public and only served as an internal bank-to-bank transfer item

If you are into numismatics then you know better than to take a rare piece of currency to a bank, because they will just give you face value. Take this $1000 bill below; a.k.a. as the “Watermelon bill” because the zero’s look like watermelon’s. Face value obviously – $1000 USD. Value at a collectors auction? $2 Million.

Finally, the tour informed us that EVERYDAY the Federal Reserve shreds and destroys over $56 Million dollars. Of course this is simultaneously replenished back into the mainstream circulation. But dayyumm that’s a lot of chedda gettin grated yo.

Lodged between Green and Union Streets and between Taylor and Leavenworth Streets, Macondray Lane is a unique hidden gem. It appeared initially on a USGS map in 1859 as a right-of-way passage. Macondray Lane has long captured the hearts of San Franciscans and visitors with its thicket lined tract, alluring cottages, and engaging gardens on the south side of the public path. As you cross through this lane you will find many different garden areas, yet all blending together. This was an early enclave for artists and writers–including Ina Coolbrith (on this very lane she was rumored to have been courted by Mark Twain in the 1860’s). In 1912, its name was changed from “Lincoln” to “Macondray” to honor pioneer San Francisco merchant Frederick W. Macondray. The informal landscaped gardens began early in the twentieth century.

In the late 1970s, Macondray Lane was memorialized as “Barbary Lane” in Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City. Tales of the City included the story of one of the major characters, Mrs. Madrigal, the marijuana growing land-lady, chaining herself to the wooden Taylor Street stairs to prevent the City from replacing them with concrete steps. Another incident of preservation in Russian Hill—fact or fiction?

This house sits next door to where Charlotte Whitney lived in the early 20th century, who was one of the founders of the California Communist Party.

tHwAAaaACK! ThUd!

the sounds of a pillow upside your head..

felt by hundreds of people tonight.. as SF held it’s 3rd annual Pillow Fight

I got there at 5:50pm, and the natives were growing restless.. you could see it in their eyes.. in the way they clutched their pillows…. held dear to their chest

The crowd was anxious, thirsty for the swirl of feathers that was about to ensue… they didn’t even wait to 6:00pm to start the pillow bashing..

This pillow fighter even has a sartorial streak to him as his shirt matches his pillow! BerDerp!

The crisp night sky is filled with thousands upon thousands of feathers.. they’re everywhere.. your hair, your clothes, your mouth!

Whoever wore black to this was hatin’ it

Here’s a video snap of this:

ah-ha! I spotted you again “Mr.-City-on-a-Mini-Van“.. the last time I saw you was also in SOMA but I had to run out of a restaurant to snap those pix.

not this time though… you were parked so perfectly still at a red-light I was able to get right up in your grill..

I even asked your owner how long he had worked on you to put you in such admirable form.. “a long time” he chuckled.

Some of you have surely used Google Maps, particularly Street View, to either productively and inquisitively look at local metro street scenes — or perhaps wasted some time searching for amusing photos captured by a 360 degree vision camera.

But until now, I haven’t actually seen one of these production cars in action, much less sitting still. Initially, in NYC, Google utilized Immersive Media to capture Gotham City’s street level action; The Dodeca 2360 11-lens camera (MSRP $45,000) was first used to record over 50,000 miles in over a dozen cities across the U.S. to upload into Google Maps.

However, it appears that either Immersive is utilizing different camera systems now, or Google has moved onto to different photographic vendors. Who knows, with as much money that Google has they may have very well invented their own.

Yesterday I happened to spot two idle Google Maps cars parked on Folsom.

Another prime reason to always have your camera ready to go.

Spotted coming up 3rd @ Folsom today.

Hey.. when yah gotta go.. yah gotta go — right? That’s the mantra of many guys, but for girls? An entirely different territory.

We’re waiting in line Sat night, in the recent deluge of rain, cold and wind, and we spot this sight across the street. Girl squatted, dress hiked, head down…

There are three funny things here — okay well, besides the girl herself — one you can see, two that you can not. The nearest person is her friend, not giving her any coverage whatsoever. The second is a group of guys hovering about 10 yards to the left, cheering her on. Finally, when she gets done, she stands, turns with her back to us, and adjust her shiny white grand-ma panties.. she wasn’t even wearing anything sexy. what’s the girl version of tighty-whitey’s?

In the classic film, Animal House, we see a classic ’64 stock Lincoln Continental transformed into the DeathMobile.

Here in SF, a replica sits, very lonely, in a back lot, waiting to cull sympathy from anyone who happens to wander by it..

some current UCSF architectural students are displaying some recent modeling projects they have been working on, in a UCSF location in SOMA.

Although I am a bigger fan of interior architecture from the likes of Claudio Silvestrin and Antonio Citterio I still have lots of respect for the guys that do this.

In downtown Mobile there lies a very old cemetery that first opened in 1819. Sitting on 4 acres behind a brick wall, underneath mighty and enormous oak trees, this cemetery is quite plentiful in lore and legend. Here you can find colonial and early national historical burials in this cemetery plot that you see below. The day these pics were snapped Mobile had been getting drenched in rain for several days — I tried waiting for a clear day but finally just took a chance to get a break in the rain and I got these.

The raised brick tombs covered in battered stucco can only be found here, and in Pensacola and New Orleans — definitely not anywhere else further inland. Some of the people buried here are Napoleonic refugee’s, Revolutionary and Mexican War soldiers, yellow fever victims, one of the founders of Mardi Gras, and a Spanish government official who was a Commissary for the King of Spain in the early 1780’s.

this last picture is the grave marker of Joe Cain who helped revive the Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile after the Civil War.

As I have noted in the past Mobile’s history stretches as far back as 1702, when Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded a strategic fort and town along an important river mouth that led into a large area covering the Southeast. This particular fort was actually built in 1711 when the French relocated the original settlement; a temporary wooden fort was constructed by over two dozen slaves and five white worker men.

Fort Conde actually protected the Mobile port for over a 100 years from 1723 – 1820 — although ownership of the township swapped hands from French to British to Spain then finally to control of US soldiers in 1813.

Observation point Fort Conde

This site and the Battle of Mobile Bay is considered a significant naval victory that helped solidify American independence from the British.

Fort Conde with RSA skyscraper in background

The time capsule at Fort Conde

Cannon aimed at Mobile Bay

Fort Conde cannons ready to blast

tonight I kicked some coins down for this guy… his sign didn’t really register on me till I got a good bit past him. Rather than continue on my way.. I thought it would be interesting.. to go ask this guy.. “what are the first 3 things you would do with a million dollars”..

he smiled..

“Buy two buildings..”

(okay is that done in one transaction or two.. i didn’t really think about that till just right now)

“okay… and..?” I replied

“buy the things to put in them..”

(I’m pretty sure I got that verbatim)

I didn’t really go into depth with him on whether or not they would be waterfront property, condos, manufacturing, houses..etc. I can appreciate the aspiration and the urge to do something better and long lasting for yourself with a million bucks..

dang it’s cold outside..

Tonight I was on the phone with a friend reminiscing about hanging out in nawleans, and I started perusing through some old pics. Being from the Gulf Coast my home town, Mobile, and New Orleans were both founded by two brothers, Iberville and Bienville, who had set out on a journey from France in 1698 to do some exploring. Bienville was actually the French Governor of Louisiana and they collectively founded Mobile in 1702.

Nevertheless, having been raised only a 2 hour drive from N.O. I spent a LOT of time there. I actually haven’t been since January of 2004, but have no doubt been to that city over a 100x.

Most people don’t know that Mobile started Mardi Gras — first Mardi Gras party went down in 1703 — which is really just a shoot off of Carnival. So there’s been some celebrations going on for 300+ years in the Gulf Coast area.

You can find scandalous party pics of the Big Sleasy at many spots on the web.. but here are just a few shots of the French Quarter primarily — although other neighborhoods in that city are culturally very rich.

Finally to wrap up this series.. just some random view points along the way..

this is Bixby Bridge.. you have undoubtedly seen this in numerous TV commercials

don’t see this mail box line-up much

this is Ragged Point..

Cat-O-Nine tails on the coast

this is Pfeiffer State Beach… a very famous beach that Ansel Adams was known to have photographed a few times

On the tail end of my trip, after cruising to Avila Beach (and being thoroughly unimpressed — maybe because of too much construction going on–especially after lounging in Cayucos and Morro Bay) I made a pit-stop into SLO primarily just to see the Mission of San Luis Obispo. This is one of California’s oldest mission’s; the 5th one constructed in the state in 1772. I didn’t go inside or stay that long, as I knew I had a long drive ahead of me on Hwy-1.

Morro Bay finds itself situated on the Mid-Coastal range of California, 1/2 way in between SF and LA. In the mid-16th century, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo stumbled upon 1 of 9 rock formations along the coast (which some say is the Gibraltar of the West) and named it Morro Rock … which got it’s name because he thought it looked like the head of a Moor. Ok. But it’s also Spanish for pebble. While considered a sacred site by the Chumash Indians, but also served as an important navigational tool for hundreds of years. Today it’s illegal to climb, except for the Chumash who are allowed to do this once a year for their annual Solstice. The area surrounding this rock was completely surrounded by water, until they filled the northern area with material from the rock itself to make the harbor. Now a working fishing village, is now home to some unique shops and great food & desserts down the Embarcadero of Morro Bay business waterfront. There was this taffy shop with 60 different items, I took a peek but held out and didn’t partake! Eh!

this place Giovanni’s has fresh food, right on the Embcadero, and I get the sense that it’s a huge local favorite. A lady in the line (who was originally a Bay Area native herself) said it’s always like this, get either the fish & chips or the clam chowder. I was headed for the C.C. mayne!

the working fishing dock was cool, but I didn’t get to see any hauls coming in.

only a few of these guys present, but weren’t phased at all by all the activity around them.

Cayucos , which is the first town above Morro Bay, is considered one of the last remaining true California-style beach towns. This coastal village, whose name is basically fishing canoe in Spanish, situates itself as a prime port originally established in 1867. Around that time there was a weekly stage that passed from San Luis Obispo to San Simeon, and its small pier now originally a docking point for steamers. But alas a storm finally destroyed the main pier, and the rise of automobiles left it off to the side to remain this nestled gem on the Mid-Coastal range. Drop in to Cayucos.. the locals were friendly & the seafood I had was fresh.

..I almost wish I had stayed there…

The drive along California’s Highway 1 is a curvy, scenic, and memorable stretch of road that snakes it’s way up and down the California coast line. The fact that this highway covers almost 550 miles, built right after the decade of the automobile circa 1934 and features some of the most beautiful coastline in the country, eventually led to it being designated as the “All-American Road”.

During my drive I discovered some small towns that we’ll take a look at. Starting with the smallest: Harmony, CA

With a population of 18, and nothing more to the “Business District” of town concentrated in a tiny area on one dead end street… life here moves pret-t-t-t-t-t-ty slow.

A dairy community that was formed over a 100 years ago by Swiss immigrants. What eventually led to a family feud and a shooting death, the community called a truce and the town was renamed to Harmony. Blink going too fast on Highway-1 and you just might miss it.

This post office is still operational though…

I took some time off this past weekend but had some delays getting out of the Bay area. However, early this morning, I grabbed another ZipCar and took off for a mini-two-day vacation. My first stop was about 5 miles North of San Simeon at a very intriguing place called the Hearst Castle, former summer home of the publishing tycoon
William Randolph Hearst.

I originally visited this fascinating location several years ago, and was really looking forward to seeing it again. Maybe the tours are a little rushed (105 minutes), there are 5 total, and some of the house is slightly boring, but overall it’s just an amazing and completely remarkable place that he constructed over the span of 20 something years. Mr. Hearst didn’t exactly play by the rules of modern art collectors when he was amassing many of the objects seen there today. Clearly there were no questions asked when he was receiving Egyptian sarcophagi, friezes from Greece, Italian ceiling panelling from the 12th century, church pews from 16th century England, etc.

Let’s begin:

the Neptune Pool is undoubtedly the most identifiable trademark of the Hearst Castle, and rightfully so. It’s total baller

furthermore, there is an indoor pool as well where the bottom is completely comprised of golden 1″ mosaic inlay.

As I said, Hearst himself was fond of various arts and culture he saw during his travels; here we see 2 images of sarcophagus: the closed one is one of only few known closed top sarcophagus in the world

close up another sarchopagus, but not a closed lid

Italian marble sculpture outside Casa Del Mar

it’s one thing to enjoy a view, but it’s another to completely OWN the entire view,, and at one point when the Hearst family owned over 200,000 acres, that’s exactly what they had.. as far as you could see — they owned it

the interior of the house was so big, that sometimes visiting guests could obviously get a little turned around. No worries, just pick up any of the phones that were available on site — this lit up a switch board that an onsite operator had and they could pinpoint the guests location and send a house staff-person to fetch them.

There is something I have enjoyed about photographing rails lately.. I don’t know what it is.. I particularly like the linear effect I suppose.

NO! not these kind of rails!

This morning as a friend of mine stopped by to say good-bye before she headed back home – it dawned on me that exactly one year ago we had been gallavanting together in Bali. We had both ventured down to JKT for a friends wedding. It’s been a challenging past year for me in many ways, but also one of the best years that I have had in quite some time; personally, emotionally, financially and career wise.

I desperately need a vacation, having not been out of the city since January, and although some of my ideal vacation spots still await me — I am fixated and very meditative that a year ago I was in a very beautiful and tranquil spot — experiencing some raw forms of humanity that I still think about to this day.

I really hope to visit this amazing island and it’s people again very soon.

traditional mask in Ubud

motobikes stream and buzz constantly through the streets of Kuta

local gas station

rice fields in Bali

no explanation needed here

curious local

Tonight I had the opportunity to partake in definitely the most unique, interesting, and possibly best sushi dinners I have eaten in this city. My friend & I had wanted to go to Ebisu, but it was closed. drats. So we started perusing a couple of sites to get ideas of what & where to eat. We spotted this listing for a place called Kabuto in the Outer Richmond. The name of the spot had a familiar ring to it — and I realized as we walked up I had always seen long lines here. Now I know why. The sushi there is ridiculous. However, the most stand out item was at the very end. A menu selection called 1849 Oyster. Presumably named for the gold flake that was positioned on top. Consisting of Sea Urchin (Uni), raw quail egg, and oyster, tobiko, then topped with the gold flake. At first sight, I won’t lie — I was rather alarmed, petrified and rattled all at the same time. Now aside from your undeniable reproach that you are feeling right now, all those feelings I had before I ate this item, vanished immediately after eating it. At first it was the ocean all at once on the palate. However, the contrasting flavors of the Uni, raw egg, and oyster appeared one by one.

all I can say is “daaYyYummm”

Currently at MarketStreet Gallery the Altered Barbie exhibit is in full swing. Most of the actual morphed pieces are over at AgeSong Gallery on 580 Hayes Street

The exhibit is a pretty quick whirl-wind of Barbie themes that your sister would have never accumulated in her day. My favorites are probably Biker Barbie and KISS Barbie. Speaking of KISS, apparently it’s the Demon’s birthday this Sunday, and he will be at Infineon celebrating

This past Sunday when it seemed like it was going to be incontestably cloudy in the city, I decided to make a dash for a charming city across the bay, and only a ferry ride away. Sausalito is full of rich history and has some interesting characters; it has long been known for prestigious individuals, but also staked its claim with early pioneers taking up nest there.

The ferry ride is only $14 for round trip, and its a quick jump over. Either that or deal with bridge traffic. But why when you can just lounge out on the deck of one of the boats and then let the afternoon slide away at Scoma’s while nursing a fine aged glass of Macallan.

I’ve been rather busy lately (what else is new).. but after the Sneaker Pimps exhibit you see below, I wound up trekking it over to White Walls Gallery to catch a glimpse of the new Jeremy Fish exhibit.

Jeremy being an SF local I have had the pleasure of seeing his work displayed numerous times here in the Bay. I alway enjoy observing his sheer cutting style.. it’s not hyperrealistic, but it draws in on a sector of my consciousness .. very sublime I think. A cross of macabre-mashup-animal-cerebral-douse in your face

Since I haven’t been posting lately, I feel it’s downright admissable that I throw some other stuff up here tonight…

Let’s take a peek around the city …

a) if you’re sleeping outdoors and it’s chilly, position yourself on top of a street level steam vent

b) an episode of the Journeyman TV show is being filmed in downtown right now

maybe this is ‘Emmy’s ex-boyfriend getting some “Extra” work now

c) if you’re not satisfied with the no-standing-no-laughing-no-cosmopolitan’s-allowed rules of Bourbon & Branch, scoot around back to the library..

d) classic laid-back Rose’s Cafe produces some great oven-roasted dishes

Mid-afternoon yesterday my friend and I decided to trek down to Mountain View to go take in a special occassion. One of only 12 7-11’s in the world that have completely transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart in a PR blitz for the upcoming Simpsons long awaited movie debut. Which has been furiously rumored for years
So down in south bay yesterday, we were able to fully actualize that its been a long time coming:

Apu: I always thought karma was baloney, but now I know it’s not.
Homer: Mmmm, caramel baloney…

The annual Fillmore Street festival is always one of my favorite street festivals here in the city by the bay. Fillmore street has a long, rich, vibrant music history that stretches all the way back to WWII… so many famous people have graced this street with their presence and influence.

Today it is lined with over 200 businesses and each year around this time the city blocks off about 12 blocks along the upper Fillmore area to celebrate different music styles, the arts, and of course food and drinks. Last year I missed it, so this year I made sure I cruised by there and took in some scenery, sounds of brass and good ol’ BBQ on a stiiiiiiiiiiiik.

so.. it’s official. one of the biggest technology items to hit the streets in years was released in stores nationwide about 6 hrs ago, 6pm PDT. So far it has gained a lot of reviews — from the fanboys, the naysayers, and already new product accessories , apps directory search, and its already been gutted. beRderp won’t be getting one anytime soon –as I’m waiting on rev2.0 and am holding out for 3G.

anyways.. I decided Wednesday (and you’ll see by the pics).. that it would be funny to timeline the evolution of the line downtown in front of the Apple store on Stockton st.

so I started Thursday.. and there were already a couple of people there.. the first few guys in line were part of a 4-man team.. with guarantees to get 2 phones per person in line, they were each covered. this first photo was at about 11am.

Then I went back again right after work, and they had moved them on the other side of the sidewalk. At this point the line really hadn’t grown any.

Right after this shot above, I went to see Bob Saget at the Warfield (which by the way, if you ever get a chance to see him live.. DO IT! just don’t take your kids.. he is not the Danny Taylor or twerp you may remember from AFHV).. so at about 10:15pm.. I decided to stroll back over before going to Vessel to see my friend.. the line had grown, and some comic flair had been added.

This morning, right after getting off the bus, as I crossed the street towards the store front, I could see the news vans had already posted up

But the line had grown to 122 at 9:48am. No! I didn’t sit there and count them, but I provided the official time-stamp for an Apple employee who had just taken all their names and a headcount.

…haha! that’s right! the sign DOES say BerDerp! ;)

Definitely the face of the mobile industry has now been altered — which I think is great. Asia and Europe are so far ahead of us in terms of devices, mobile technology, market penetration, and integrated services, it will be good to see the dust and cobwebs shaken up a bit. The rest of 2007 and 2008 are going to be fun times for mobile gadget heads like myself.

Meanwhile today… while everyone was buying iPhone’s or trading their left kidney for one, AT&T was busy plopping down 2.8B in cash for Dobson Communications — who owned Cellular One — which adds another 1.7M users to their subscriber base of about 65M — my gosh they just posted 1.5B in revenue for Q1 2007. Go Ma’Bell

So after a long day running around and then partying at BFD, I actually got up super early to go return my Zipcar and then snap some pics of the 1st SF Gorilla Run .. This is a well established UK event and thus this year something like 200 people donned gorilla costumes and did a 7k trek in the morning hours on Sunday to raise money and awareness for the plight of the gorilla species (or rather what’s left of them).

This morning I spotted the elusive albino gorilla

Elvis gorilla’s

Pirate gorilla’s

Adidas/photographer gorilla

a gang of gorilla’s

Of course at the Start line they had to have something to chase..

so.. this seemed only natural right..?

“…. who who haa haa…”

and they’re off…

of course there were professional gorilla’s and communist gorilla’s

and finally.. even Kong himself made an appearance..

A few weeks ago something emerged from Ocean Beach’s past that hadn’t seen the light of day since 1985 — the shipwreck of King Philip, a clipper ship that ran aground in 1878. American Clipper ships, as they were claimed, “long and lean”, were built to sail from the East Coast, down to South America, around Cape Horn and then to San Francisco. This particular ship apparently didn’t have the best luck, as it had a documented two mutinies in which both times the ship was set on fire.

Either way, on it’s trek out of the Golden Gate bay, with no cargo, it was swept ashore and basically salvaged for parts and its hulk blown up. Here is a pic of the remains when they surfaced in 1985 — and an artist rendition of what the shipwreck looked like that January in 1878.

I had tried to get pics a week or two ago, and the tide was too high — so needing some fresh air earlier today I strolled out there and got lucky for there not to be a dozen onlookers gawking around the ruins.

Check ’em…

Tonight on my way to a wedding banquet in Chinatown I had the opportunity to capture for you the exact reason why I ALWAYS carry my digi cam on me everywhere I go…. cus U just never know.

Spotted going North on Grant; turning left on Sutter

So it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that there are some geeks at the postal service — and surely it’s no mystery that amongst them therein lies a strong sci-fi following. This manifests itself on to the streets as the USPS celebrates the 30th anniversary of Star Wars by deploying some tricked out mailboxes resembling R2D2. I spotted this one on a corner opposite of Union Square. They aren’t stupid enough to put them somewhere in a dark area where some obsessed fan can steal them.

Perhaps the USPS should just auction them off and then use the $$ to become more efficient.

No this posting isn’t about the famous spot in Dallas–it’s really about mounting a crazy fish on the grill of your VW van

Today the weather was gorgeous in Ocean Beach, so I had to take a stroll to get some fresh air. The windmill you see below is a much recognized symbol of SF’s pacific coastline and I thought it would be cool to take some pictures of this today. Originally built in 1902, at the time was one of the world’s largest South Dutch styled windmills, and then restored many, many years later. Situated in Golden Gate park (which by the way is bigger than Central Park in NYC) this spot is a great area for photoshots