prints for my spanish apartment!

After a few days of nothingness, started the weekend well and went to San Rafael to the Marin Art Festival for the very first time, though my sister has been there many times. If you haven't been to San Francisco and Bay Area festivals, they are something to see, though others..... details below.

I am always amazed at how so many individuals can create so many unique and fantastic arte with their hands and/or minds. There was everything from jewelry of all sorts and designs, to junk metal sculptures, to gorgeous busts (nude female chest) designed to be hung from a clothes hanger or a single nail in the wall. The photographic imagery was excellent and while I saw a majority of landscapes, there was a good mix of landscapes local to the area and landscapes of other areas, and other themes. It was quite an experience and I was even surprised in seeing some prints of a painting that I really liked. The original paintingfs were created by New Orleans artist Barbara Yochum who drove to the Bay Area just for this one festival! I picked up two prints to take when I travel in January and hang in my apartment in Rota (Cadiz) Spain. I love the concept of mermaids and both of my prints selected have that theme and are done very artisticly.

Eventually returning to cool foggy San Francisco and in session was the North Beach Festival in full blast, so I went there for a minute and actually saw so many people drinking and trying to get drunk, that I immediately turned around and went home.

what does a homeless with many carts of "home"
do when a festival takes his only spot for a weekend?

It's a shame that these festivities seems to be an outlet for young immatures to get legally drunk in an open area but this type of "easy" life in the United States has spread even to Europe, where now, staying out all night and drinking to excess seems to be the highlight of the week. Of course, the usual problems pop up... not of too much concern because each week there are even more who attend these "sidewalk parties" that comprise sometimes hundreds of teens.

What types of problems happen in these drunken get-togethers? First we have the normal problem of where masses people converge without toilet facilities, so now people urinate in plain sight: doorways, on cars, anywhere. Then the more serious things start to happen later into the night: discussions that turn into arguments and fights, stabbings, fist-fights and worst, shootings and of course: rapes and more. I'm not going to mention the violence they do against historic monuments and ancient artifacts.... it's a terrible shame and a pitiful statement of our current society.

the music was good and LOUD,
and didn't require alcohol to enjoy

sigh... americans are a terrible influence upon the rest of the world. Sometimes, I am so embarrassed to say I am american.....

wall-to-wall people at the festival in North Beach

No new photo sessions in the City; lots of models who say they are models, but in reality they rarely stay in contact. The Bay Area is such a void of no-shows and irresponsibility. For this reason, lots of shooting flora, sunsets and those beautiful buildings on the streets; much more reliable than a SF "model"!