Trauma films on North Beach streets

I cannot believe the circumstances: it's been four decades (give or take a few hours/days) since I stood on the corner of Taylor and Filbert Streets in San Francisco's North Beach and watched in awe...... the filming for the movie Bullit was wrapping up one of its many scenes of the famous bouncing-off-the-crest-of-those-SF-hills chase sequence, and now I am again a more mature witness to another modern-day filming on the very same street corner.... and this time I have a camera!!!
Today it was to be for a TV pilot to be aired possibly in a month for NBC and titled Trauma. The camera crew and actors have been been filming for the past few weeks in various SF locations, their biggest and loudest being the explosion on the King Street off-ramp some weeks ago.

But I remember waaay back when, as a kid, on this very corner where I stood there was just a film crew of not even a handful of the production crew. With just a single camera, three cars (two chase scene cars and an "innocent" VW bug) and no police for traffic control.

Tonight there was at least five trucks with a work crew of at least 50, one very noisy but fast car, and even portable toilets and a food cart, plus a huge power generator... about five motorcycle policemen were utilized for traffic control, and even more!!!

Boooy, has the times changed! There were quite a big crowd of about 18 just standing around tonight in the cold wind watching ~ but I do remember as a kid 40 yrs ago, there wasn't but five watching..... and it was during the afternoon. I stood on the sidewalk at the northeast corner of Taylor & Filbert just behind the camera crew!!! :-)

Tonight this speeding car flew down the hills, skidded a little as he hit the brakes a bit too much then swung around to his right; the scene was well lit with small lights on the hill, plus a huge bright light at the very top of the street pointed south to our corner.

The last time I was here those two Bullit cars flew down the hills, screeched on their brakes and skidded to their left.... in this link to a youTube video (not responsible for any broken links but was functional when I tested while writing this) of just the movie's chase scene, the chase down Taylor Street starts at about 4mins 10 seconds. You can see Crystal Tower apartment building in the background and the little moss-green VW bug gets passed by the two speeding cars.... ;-)My, have the times changed!!here he comes DOWN Taylor street!!

walking alone in profound thought

Thank goodness I have a "local" bank - using this as an excuse to leave the car (happily) behind and take a walk - a real walk - to the edge of the Financial District from North Beach which is just about a mile in distance. I haven't done any real walking since I was in Spain during January and I had a lot of meals to get rid of. I walk fairly fast... I can walk about two miles in about 17,6 minutes, and that's been with a camera stopping to snap at buildings and things.

When I got to the bank, I saw the manager in his office and asked my usual question about refinancing my spanish apartment with an american bank so I can quit losing $400+ monthly on conversion between the stronger euro and the weaker dollar. Of course I knew the answer would be negative but I always hope for a pleasant surprise and a positive reply instead.

I returned home using a different route taking me up to the steep hills of Nob Hill - I needed this exertion as I haven't walked in so many months. The frigid wind whipped around the corners as I reached the top but it was refreshing. An unseen ambulance blaring with sirens zipped by on another street... I didn't care. I passed by an apartment building with ornate windows and pulled out my cell to snap a picture... a woman walking a small brown dog watched me as she stepped closely behind me. Her expression told of unknown and unseen horrors; hopefully it wasn't her windows!
I saw cars zipping through stop signs, people walking by without noticing their close proximity to the driven danger, their eyes downward, talking on cell phones or listening to an unseen and unheard iPod. Birds not caring of the humans below and the unknown close brush with death glided above our heads.... twisting, turning, circling....

I walked down a steep hill where city workers dressed in bright orange vests were busily sweeping and pushing brooms. I greeted the two of seven nearest me, wishing them a good morning and to take care, and they politely smiled and returned the greeting.

At the top of the next hill at Taylor and Union, across the street a couple stood next to a parked car, looking to the bay where their cameras pointed. I looked past their cameras and smiled, and they smiled back. Stepping onto to Union Street a MUNI bus stopped, and the air hissed as the bus "kneeled" and dropped four inches to the ground as an elderly woman stepped gingerly off the bus and walked away, cane in hand. I waved to the bus driver as he waited for me to walk past in front of his bus before driving off.

all that happens...

...will eventually repeat itself. Our lives are a cycle of events that sometimes repeat itself. We return to places in our childhood and relive moments... yesterday was a busy day for me, starting as usual very early for me till I finally practically collapsed in bed and fell asleep quickly sometime after 1am, the act of sleeping easily and soundly being something that has evaded me for years, if not decades.

I met a new friend for a walk.... a slow enjoyable walk from North Beach to the base of Telegraph Hill, then up the steps to the top. I recalled that area below the bushes where I spent many a day away from school, and with a friend later who liked photography as much as I did then, and still do.

I often wonder what happened to all those I knew in San Francisco as a young lad, then leaving and not returning till four decades in the future.

From there we took the back route of Telegraph Hill: the infamous long and steep steps of over 200+ steps and leading down toward the Embarcadero... while on this jaunt down into a green lushland, this friend pointed out to me the passion flower (Passiflora incarnata)
which I have never seen, and as I didn't have my camera with me, borrowed her small camera to snap a pix! On flat land again, we continued slowly towards the Ferry Building, stopping often to see things and to take paths closer to the water to relish the spectatular views of the San Francisco Bay and the bridge. It was a cloudy overcast day, and in the distant I pointed out the heavy gray clouds and the steaks of darker color below those vaporous masses, a sign of falling rain.

Inside the Ferry Building, we walked around mixing with the crowds - the farmer's market was in session so the crowds weren't as numerous but still, there was a mess of people looking here, and many dressed in the spirit of Halloween! I stopped at several stands offering a taste of sourdough to be soaked with different flavors of olive oil. I am still amazed how - after living in southern Spain for so long - how olive oil sold in the USA is soooo expensive, often $10USD higher than priced in Spain! sigh

We eventually departed the Ferry Building and returned to North Beach via the Embcarcadero again, soon passing the cruise boat terminal where a huge new cruise ship had just moored, and a mess of people busy on the wide sidewalks with suitcases, maps and more. Some were boarding the ship here and their bags were being wrapped with tape, and their boarding tickets being verified, while others left the building in confused steps, seeking buses, taxis and little more to get to other destinations. We passed that crowd and soon crossed the street and headed toward North Beach. Soon we arrived at a quiet corner where a neighborhood grocery store sat opposite a middle school. This store was my lunch-hour snack and where I purchased my sandwich during my lunch: I can still remember the fresh smell of the tan-colored french roll, the taste of the ham. Back then I was still adjusting to wearing glasses just a few years ~ now I didn't need glasses any longer. Today it was a choice of three types of buns and I chose the dark french roll, ham and topped with mayo and shredded lettuce. The roll wasn't fresh as I once remembered, though the amount of ham was plentiful. We went to Washington Square to eat this and sat there taking in the scene, while my friend threw pieces of the hard dark french roll crust to the grass for the birds. It doesn't matter that two dogs found and ate the bread crusts instead....

In a few more hours I departed to the Western Addition near the Golden Gate Park panhanld - for a Halloween party and after finally finding a place to park - where is there parking in San Francisco - discovered a small side street closed off to car traffic allowing lots of big and short trick-or-treaters to walk about for their share of candies and other treats of the eye, before going to my friend's party!
It's been over four decades since I played any type of active role during Halloween and as innocent as it seems to be just walking through the streets of San Francisco seeing strangers in full paint and costume - even during the day - was throwing this soul into the deep dark well full of memories. I got home well after 10pm and had no problem maneuvering the wet dark but not empty San Franciscan streets. My new eyes were doing me good tonight!!

Day 2 of Fleet Week

Great people, great time and interesting.... I love observing people and since people are so unpredictable, it makes an interesting day.

Took the camera and had time to take pictures... some included here for your viewing pleasure. Today was the first day of the official practice which started late but it's still a great performance!

Tomorrow is the first day of the official Fleet Week.... I'll be taking the monster lens this time; everything was just too far away and I hate jets appearing as tiny as dust-mites in my pictures!! hahahahaa

More pixs are on my flickr site

Oh frig... did anyone see the fireworks? Scheduled for 9pm but after freezing on my roof in North Beach for 24,1 minutes, decided to come back in... oops!! I hear the explosions now.... gotta run!!!

I guess I've finally captured some decent fireworks using my tripod! Have never had luck before but after seeing the results of some other photographers, tried again and this time I was successful!! Usually I'll handhold my camera with a 300mm telephoto and shoot it to get my previous "great" results. I can see my problem in manually focusing the lens is very apparent as I looked through the pictures, but my vision is still appearing to improve everyday. The night vision is coming along slowly though, but I'm still patient. It's been three weeks now since my eyes were corrected ~ my, does time fly when you're recovering!!

Way back when I did attend school...

... and even enjoyed it, it was here where I attended grammar school. Not even 123.17 feet from my front door and a simple three-minute walk as a child, I remember days of such heavy fog that after stepping out of my flat where I lived on the same street as the school, I couldn't even see the school!

I've been meaning to revisit my old schools since my return late last year but work in getting stuff out of this apartment, photography and trips and plain stress and laziness has kept me from doing this. But today after a simple walk around the block, I entered finally to see that though the upper floors has been converted into an adult learning center and downstairs a childcare center, it really hasn't changed. Down the stairs to where cars are now parked in half of the schoolyard is the same wall I used to play handball ~ and won quite a few competitions too! I always considered myself quick on my feet with excellent reaction and reflexes, and that was proven easily against my fellow students.

I noticed now the beauty of marble-lined banister in the stairwells, something I didn't even notice nor care about as a very hyper child.

Of course now the classrooms were filled with desks much larger than when I sat in while in attendance, but being in the rooms ran a nervous chill down my back, and I quickly left the rooms and went out to the hall then outside. It was here that one teacher ~ forgot her name ~ realized that I had creative talent and allowed me to "do" some things not allowed other students. For example, I have the intense memory of drawing a perfect circle with ease, which my fellow students did with worse results than I. As a result of that I never was "required" to follow through learning to write in cursive and when I entered the military, I was told my non-written signature was not "legal", something I was told required cursive - so my "signature" was then born from my lowercase name which was my signature then, adapted in a fake cursive mode to appear as my signature!

Another memory was when we were all told to stand at attention and face the flag, which was lowered to half-mast upon news of John F. Kennedy's death... nobody near me knew why we were doing it, and nobody cared about it except that it was using up our precious recess time.

My old grammar school may be an adult learning center now, but to me it's was an open book in my past, and still is ~ with lots of memorable pages waiting to be opened and turned!

Ooooooh, the memories!!

North Beach festival

I returned to the festival today to see world champion-class Tony Gemignani perform his amazing pizza tossing skills, and I have to admit, they are not kidding when they say toss dat pizza dough!!!

They had his table inside a small beer-drinking area and I arrived early to get a good spot for my pictures. You never know when those damn photographers will show up!! hahahahaaa He was already busying himself, rolling a few pizza dough to use during his show, and this was indeed a great show!

In a few moments, he had everything readied and began.... with a cordless microphone headset, he began with a few demonstrations showing how he can spin and toss the dough, and explained who he was.... the crowd, needless to say, was as impressed as I was. Then he asked for music and started a show in time to the music! This tossing and spinning of the pizza dough was just incredible! He even did a few spins and tosses while lying on his back on the ground, plus a few tosses behind his back from left to right, and even using his foot as a footrest to balance the dough, and even passing the pizza dough beneath his leg from one side to the other!

It was indeed impressive!!! I can now see why he has won the world champion title nine times! So, if you ever get a chance to see him in action, do so because you will not be disappointed!!

More pictures of his tossing are posted in my web in the events album.

I also had a chance to take a peek inside St Peter and Paul church next to Washington Square for a silent and quick respite from the crowds of people and blaring music - and while the church interior is different than those I've seen in France, Germany, Spain and Italy, it was still quite nice.




I also was thrilled to hear the vocals of Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers.... the great music of her band got people who crowded all of the grassy area of Washington Square, listening and dancing and moving to the smooth jazzy tunes....

click on the picture to see their myspace site

Enjoy the sights!!!

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"!

another gallery showing finished....

well, I just returned home from picking up my framed images from the group show in Berkeley. What can I say? It was my first actual gallery showing in the United States, first time showing in the Bay Area, and the first-ever display in my life as a photographer to be attended by any of my family, since I have only exhibited previously outside of the United States; my sister and one of my three brothers attended the opening night.

While I didn't sell anything, I was present to see, hear and read many fantastic comments about my work, especially the four Kat Love images that I had framed two images each vertically matted within a single black frame. It was hung on the wall behind the gallery's front room high on the wall behind the workspace counter, and on opening night there were several people who just stood there, motionless in the bustle of an opening night in a small crowded gallery, just staring at my fotos. It was a great pleasure for me to see such reactions, and it moved me deeply. I always have thought I have an immense talent for photography, and to see it recognized in one way or another is always good for the general morale of an artist - and I do consider myself an artist. I also needed that morale boost a lot!!

I was hoping one of the Kat Love images would be sold; they were priced quite inexpensively so I could recoup at least the framing costs, but that didn't happen. Of course, I couldn't afford to frame my images so my sister graciously paid for the framing. Oh well.... now I start looking for another location where I can hang and show my art.

I continue my occasional breaks from boxing, cleaning and moving boxes of stuff down six flights of stairs, these breaks for my photography being my sole source of relaxation and diversion from the cleaning and organizing. This weekend I'm hoping to get some pictures of the triathlon starting from the Marina, plus later the same day, to tour the interior of San Francisco's City Hall which I have heard is very ornate and beautiful; I've been wanting to see it but because of my hectic crazy schedule haven't found the time to do it. It'll be an eye-opener I'm sure!

As always, I have many images displayed at my website plus some samples of my second-ever session with a mature male nude model.

Here are some images I've created in the past few weeks/months:

Raelyn Mouse in Oakland (I think that was the location)


FitnFifty helps me find the light



Union Street Fair offers some great "still-life"



the Bay Area is a cup of light and shadows no matter when one looks