Strange Closets

Grand Avenue in West Town is rapidly developing into another furniture / design destination. Salvage house Urban Remains just moved next door to Post 27, Julia Buckingham Edelmann is opening a new shop and of course, there’s MCM Grand, which would be worth a special trip even if it weren’t surrounded by so many great [...]

The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy says Land’s End is “San Francisco’s wildest and rockiest coast, a place strewn with shipwrecks and rife with landslides.” Not to mention decorations. During my recent Land’s End hike, I spotted a labyrinth temporarily carved into the rocky coastal area and a beautiful assemblage of stones, nuts and feathers that [...]

Describing a place as touristy conjures up images of senior citizens on tour buses and camera-toting oblivions holding up traffic. The Golden Gate Bridge is definitely touristy. I was the camera idiot, and there were loads of senior citizens and everybody else too. The word ‘throngs’ seems apt. But the landmark’s also spectacular and even [...]

Built atop Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower offers another example of San Francisco art deco architecture. Like the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tour is touristy, but it too held up well, offering fantastic city views, gorgeous murals commissioned under the WPA program and a very, very old elevator. ♦ Have a nice weekend. To signal my [...]

Despite their lack of wires, mobile ‘smart’ phones like the Blackberry and the IPhone make some people, including this writer, feel too connected to something they just can’t quit. But I wasn’t even tempted to check last weekend during a day trip that took my friend and me over the Golden Gate, through Muir Woods [...]

As you peruse today’s photo essay, I must insist you listen to this excellent song.  Just click the YouTube player icon on your screen.  Sheesh, can you imagine how strange the preceding sentence would’ve sounded to you fifteen years ago?  Or, how much would we even understand about modern day life if we were transported [...]

For some time I’ve been rooting for the Friends of the High Line to succeed in their campaign to transform an old elevated train line into a real gosh-darn park (by golly).  Mother Nature started the High Line accidentally when some seeds blew out of her pocket and began to sprout on the abandoned Chelsea [...]