:: BerDerp™ ::

Crown Fountain in Millenium Park

the Green Mill Lounge that Al Capone used to own; this spot opened originally in 1907

gotta make this a short-posting as I’m heading out for some b’day rowdiness

recent posting hiatus due to being in Chicago over the weekend… so over the next few days we’ll take a look at some things I snapped while there

..but in the mean time..

it was super hot in Chi-town

this is Jillian – a current temporary resident on the roof of my friend’s condo

baby back ribs at Smoke Daddy’s… place is da b-o-m-b.

This is Gumball 3000 rally coverage part 2, for day 1 of the 2008 rally. The rally with 35 different nationalities amongst 121 cars, starts in SF and ends in Beijing – right in time for the finals at this years Olympics. Only slightly more than half of this years participants are actually making it to the Asia leg of this years rally.

Maserati GT

classic Ferrari Dino

Lambo on Lombard

Lamborghini with CB antennas

these guys were totally strapped in the electronics department.. GPS, weather, live cam stream, who knows

alfonso doing some crazy dance..

the driver was revving the engine for this shot.. of course

this Gumballer had on the same jacket as me, and we started joking around. I then noticed what he had on that I didn’t. ahem.

the Russian guys that push the Phantom… how gangsta in the matchin‘ track suits.

Ford GT cruising down Lombard with masked drivers

Classic ‘Vett

finally spotted the Tesla Roadster after looking fruitlessly for it earlier

camo’d BMW

this F430 Spider has police lights and siren installation that was pretty sneaky

dropped & waiting.

1967 Ford, Elanor from Gone in 60 Seconds

Ferrari Enzo

Enzo rear

RR x Gumball 3000 x Nixon

camo’d 360 Modena Spider

armor like Vitamin C on this Murcielago

closeup

$400K+ Porsche Carrera GT

The two Playmates (Team Blondes) that were going to be driving the Mercedes-McLaren SLR featured in the rear. There are 3 of them, the girls — triplets to be precise; guess the 3rd one was sick?

taken from inside the drivers orientation meeting Saturday morning (yup!)

Ludacrs?

like the matching orange calipers on this

this is Maximillion Cooper’s XJ220

Willie riding large in the Gumpert Apollo

this VW Samba has been retrofitted with a Carrera 3.2 engine

the taxi C6

Maximillion Cooper — the guy who started it all 10 years ago

Maybach 57 .. Gumball 3000 style (check out this Landaulet 62 also from Maybach, whom incidently may be calling it quits.)

the Fuel Girls with Frawggy

the Hoff giving interview while propped on KITT (which apparently didn’t make it all the way to L.A. on Saturday night due to mechanical issues).

Alfonso Ribiero and Joe Rogan in front of the Gumpert — wow everyone wanted to pose with this thing.

the skinny on the Gumpert Apollo (according to the driver standing to the left) is that this is the only Gumpert currently in the U.S. What you see before you is a production-demo that they themselves just got last week. The actual street release isn’t open to the public for another 2 weeks. This street legal car packs a 4.2 litre Audi V8 weighing in around 2400lbs and has a 6-speed sequential gearbox Formula1 style influencing. They just need to lift this sucker a few inches. it’s mad low.

baby on the ‘stang

this is part of the informational package you are given as a Gumball participant. For the Asia leg of the 2008 Gumball rally, there will be driving in China. So to assist with the interpretation of signs and general info — the Gumball staff had these handy image/sign translation cards on a ring made.

the Hoff trying to run us over!!

the Hoff says — YEAAHHHHHH!!!!

Bam! its been 5 years since the Gumball 3000 rally kicked off in SF — last time I missed it, so I was not snoozin’ this time. Tonight at the Fairmont the event was starting to slowly unfold. Go here for tomorrow’s coverage of the starting day of Gumball 3000 2008

chrome dipped Gallardo

getting out of the Gumpert Apollo. This car has top speeds of 224 mph, and 0-60 in 3 seconds.

This is THE original KITT from the classic 80’s TV show. Apparently the Hoff purchased it a long time ago. Seeing that he is participating in the rally this year (albeit only from SF > LA) he decided to polish it up, and bust it outta the garage. I hear that a few BMX guys are pinch driving for him after he stays behind in LA. rough life.

Frawggy.. comin’ up clean as #### in front of the Fairmont (special spotlight on Frawggy coming soon)

Ferrari F430 Scuderia .. shark styles. imagine seeing that coming up in your rear view mirror.

Gumpert. Only 1 in the country.

RR Phantom Drophead kickin it large. On the first day, of a previous Gumball 3000 rally, the owner of this Phantom crashed another identical model. So…. he turned around and promptly purchased a replacement, had her decals slapped on, and re-entered the race. ridiculous.

this is as close as I could get to the Hoff, cus you know, don’t mess with the Hoff.. berDerp!

XJ220 Jag

Puma is a big sponsor this year, as well as Nixon, Monster drink, Spy Optics and more. If you are wondering about the decals, they must be present on the car at all times during the rally. No trying to disguise yourself from the rest of the group.

inside of KITT

I never did like these guys.. but isn’t Mushroom Cloud Bear so great!?

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.