28 March 2015 - Art in Alcatraz

In all the years I have gone to San Francisco, Alcatraz has never been on my radar. Too many other things to do. But this Spring there was an art exhibit in the prison that was impossible to pass up.  The exhibit was called @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz. It was intriguing on many levels. 

First because Ai Weiwei, the artist, is under house arrest in China. He never saw the exhibition space in person. Both he and his father have been imprisoned for having opinions the Chinese government didn't approve of.

Second, this quote was used in an article about the exhibit, which immediately brought images of the birdman of Alcatraz.

“The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.”
— Ai Weiwei

Third, the irony of an art exhibit about freedom of expression and human rights staged in a prison was hard to resist.

Fourth, after all this time, having the opportunity to see Alcatraz was just too good to pass up. Needless to say, I hopped on a ferry and went to visit the island. 

It was a powerful experience. The exhibit was scattered through different buildings.  My favorite was called With Wind. It was comprised of a massive Chinese Dragon kite. You could walk under and around it. Many of the dragon's body pieces included quotes from political prisoners both  dead and alive. 

 
It is hard to show how large the dragon is. It winds all over the room.
                                                            








The corners of the room have more kites. It almost seems too obvious a statement--a piece called With Wind, where the kites are imprisoned in a room and decorated with quotes from political prisoners. But to see it in person? All the  comparisons go right out the window. 

Another room is nothing but portraits of political prisoners made out of Legos. Called Trace, it features 176 people that Ai considers to be heroes.

The podiums on the side have information on each person and why they were imprisoned, whether they are alive or dead or died in prison. This exhibit reminded me of the AIDS quilts. 

Equally powerful is seeing the little walkway up behind the windows on the left hand side. Armed guards would watch the prisoners work on laundry in this building.  Anyone stepping out of line could be shot at will. Here is a view of the tiny hallway and a look at the room through a broken window.

The hospital wing was the venue for an installation called Blossom. Each toilet, urinal, sink and tub was filled with white ceramic flowers. Again, an ironic statement. Delicate porcelain flowers, almost as fragile bouquets against the hard utilitarian surfaces. 

Illumination consisted of two psychiatric observation rooms with music piped in. Standing in the center of these rooms you could hear Tibetan Buddhist chants and in the other room was Hopi Eagle Dance music, traditionally used in healing. 

The one I found most moving was called Stay Tuned. Here Ai used 12 tiny cells, outfitting each with a single stainless steel stool. You can see just how tiny the cell is compared to the stool.  

Walk in, sit down and you hear words, poetry, music or songs by artists who have been imprisoned for their words or who created the music or poetry while incarcerated.  Each cell is labeled. 

 On the wall across from the cells are the words or description of the music that you hear in the cell. 

It was an amazing experience. Both for the art and the prison. 

26 March 2015 - Being a Tourist

My sister lived in San Francisco for 40 years. I stayed with her many many times and got to see a lot of the city. We rarely did the tourist route when we were together. Whenever I arrived she usually had a list as long as my arm entitled "When Lauri Comes to San Francisco" that was filled with opportunities for seeing, doing and eating.  I don't think we ever came close to completing a list. 

The last several times I was in SF I actually did some normal tourist activities, well sort of. And it was fun. 

Sitting at the very top of Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower is one of my favorite places. It is a monument to honor firefighters, commissioned by Lillie Hitchcock Coit. She was my kind of woman. She lived large, smoked cigars and gambled wildly. Okay, sorta my kind of woman. She was a volunteer fireman and devoted a lot of her time to firefighting after being saved from a fire when she was a child. 


At night the tower just glows. Beautiful. 

The two best ways to see the tower are by climbing up the stairs on Telegraph Hill. I like to climb up the Greenwich steps and return on the Filbert stairs. 

The stairs are fairly steep but they wander through beautiful gardens and are a joy to climb, especially if you stop to smell the roses. Stopping to admire the view is always a good way to catch your breath rather than admit you need to take a rest for a moment. 




                                              

The hill is filled with homes, but it is too steep for roads. Anyone who lives here climbs the stairs to get in and out with groceries, furniture or anything else. I don't envy the postman or movers.

The picture above is a gate off the stairs leading to someone's house. It is all very charming. There are beautiful sculptures, mosaic work and art all through the gardens. 
 

Most of the art has been created by the owners, not just purchased.

If you are a gardener or just love flowers and incredibly beautiful settings, the Botanic Garden at Golden Gate Park is for you. 

I particularly love how there are hidden follies tucked off the main paths. It is a treat to discover them. 

 Golden Gate Park also has a fabulous carousel that is definitely on the not-to-be-missed list. It is a restored 1914 Herschell-Spillman menagerie carousel meaning that in addition to horses it has rabbits, pigs, tigers, lions, dragons, zebras, deer, and camels and many more. 

Not only that, it is the cheapest, best entertainment around at only $2.00 a ride. Look at these animals! How could you not want to take a spin or three?

And as long as you are at Golden Gate Park go up to Stow Lake and take a ride on the paddle boats. 

 You get to paddle under bridges, see waterfalls, a Chinese tea house and if you are lucky enough to be there in April, the Great Blue Heron babies will have hatched and you can watch the parents feed them.

Another favorite spot is the labyrinth. It is at a wonderful spot that overlooks the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Start at the Sutro Baths, take the Land's End trail to Eagle Point.

The trail leads past one gorgeous vista after another and ends up here. 

Need a little music after all this fresh air?  Every Saturday and Sunday afternoon the Legion of Honor hosts an organ concert on one of the biggest pipe organs around. It boasts 4500 pipes ranging from 1/2 inch to 32 feet long.  The sound rattles your bones. Well worth your time.

I often need to escape from the city noise, crowds and general bustle. That calls for a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge to Mount Tamalpais. There are over 50 miles of trails through picturesque rolling hills. In the Spring they are green and covered with wildflowers. 

  

Mount Tam is a great spot to decompress. The trails are narrow, but flat for walking although the hills themselves are pretty steep. 


I often get the urge to roll down them but I don't think I'd be able to stop. 

Other decompression places involve ferry rides. Take the ferry to Angel Island for a day of hiking. Or take the ferry to Tiburon, walk up behind the historic Old St. Hilary's church and take the trails up to the top. From there you can see San Francisco, Oakland, Richmond and all three bridges. 

Being a tourist isn't all that bad. There truly are many things for everyone to enjoy, no matter what it is you like to do or see. And I have done and seen a lot of San Francisco and there is still so much more to discover. We shall see what transpires on my next trip!
     

 

23 March 2015 - Birding in SF plus Pterodactyls

While I was working hard in San Francisco, I did get a couple opportunities to go birding. In addition to seeing so many beautiful birds that I don't get at home, I was able to add twelve new birds to my life list. Hooray!

Common loon

Red-throated loon

Bewick's wren

 Orange-crowned warbler

Black-and-white warbler

Acorn woodpecker

Pelagic cormorant:  he is the one in the middle and smaller than the two double-crested cormorants that flank him. Notice the DC cormorant on the right is showing his crests--little white fluffs.

Brandt's cormorant

In addition to these, I had really good looks at four more birds but did not get photos, darn it.  I added Hooded oriole, Cassin's auklet, Rhinoceros auklet, and Pigeon Guillemot. 

The following birds are not new, but it was a fabulous high diving show.  I was able to spend almost an hour at Heron's Head Park watching twenty Brown Pelicans diving for food. It looked like they were eating both fish and bat rays. But the diving positions make them look like pterodactyls. Scarily so. The pictures below are all different birds, not a progression of a single bird in a dive. The sun was behind the birds which turned the pictures into black silhouettes.

All of these dives ended up in various iterations of this:

So much fun. So little time.