The Summer of Buzz
You know how The New Yorker does a big, fat “Summer Fiction Issue” every June, and then disappears from your mailbox for a few weeks while the magazine’s staff enjoys a well-earned holiday? Well, that’s pretty much how you should think about my recent weblogging hiatus. I haven’t lost interest in weblogging at all, and, in fact, I’ve actually got a rather large backlog of post ideas tucked away in VoodooPad. But, taking a cue from George Costanza, I made a decision earlier in the year that this was going to be the Summer of Buzz (a “…time to taste the fruits and let the juices drip down my chin,” to quote the man himself), and, unfortunately, my irrepressible lust for life and resolve to really get out there and explore California just hasn’t left a lot of time for cranking out copy.
I plan to get around to posting regularly again soon (I still regret that I never managed to write a WWDC wrapup, considering what a great time I had), but until then, I’m posting a recap (and a bunch of photos) of my recent activites for journaling purposes.
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My little brother (the icon designing one) came out to visit me immediately after WWDC and stayed for a good 19 days. We spent Independence Day in San Francisco, attempting to watch the fireworks from Fisherman’s Wharf, but concluded fairly quickly that the parking disaster, dense fog, firework-lobbing throngs on the Embarcadero, and generally lackluster pyrotechnics made the whole experience a bit disappointing. I now regret not joining Jonas and TheCodingMonkeys in the South Bay for the evening (if only because I think it would have been interesting to experience my national holiday from the German perspective). Oh well, there’s always next year…
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That same weekend we happened into the middle of the Fillmore Street Festival while attempting to get to Harputs, one of San Francisco’s (indeed, the world’s) centers of shoe culture, to procure my brother some Adidas stuff. Later that night, we saw Spiderman 2 at the Kabuki. I thought it was great—genuinely affecting and far truer to Stan Lee’s original plotline than most comic book movies are to their sources. I particularly liked the “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” montage.
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We spent my post-4th of July day off up at Muir Woods, which I had never seen. It was a lovely (and cool) place to spend a summer day, though I have to say I remain more impressed by other parts of Marin County.
- The next weekend, my Mom came down to Cupertino after visiting my aunt and uncle for awhile in Pleasanton. The three of us drove down to Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, and then hung out in Carmel for awhile. If you ever want to visit Big Sur, but aren’t sure where to go specifically, you’d be hard pressed to find a more scenic-yet-accessible beach than Pfeiffer (I wish I had some digital photos to post, but I decided to shoot slides with my Leica the whole weekend).
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Last Thursday, my brother and I were lucky enough to get into a sold out performance of Dave Eggers’ play Sacrament! at Intersection for the Arts in the Mission. I’m particularly pleased that we were able to do this, since the play is based on Bobby’s favorite book, You Shall Know Our Velocity, and is pretty much booked solid from now until the end of its run (we got in by showing up early and getting on the waiting list for seats). The play was fun, and definitely reflected a lot of Eggers’ sense of humor (five words: “Rock me like a hurricane!”). Consequently, I think the book has moved up a couple spots on my reading list.
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This past weekend, Bobby and I capped of his stay with a trip out to Yosemite. I think we did a pretty good job of doing the grand tour: we started from high above the valley floor at panoramic Glacier Point (which fortunately had just that morning reopened following the recent fires), then hiked up even higher to the top of Sentinel Dome, and finally descended into the valley itself, stopping at Tunnel View for photos looking down the valley, and continuing on to the Yosemite Village. We finished the day with a ranger-conducted, valley floor tram tour, which offered some spectacular aplenglow views of El Capitan, Cathedral Spires, Half Dome, and many of Yosemite’s other famous glacial granite formations.
Yosemite is a truly incredible place (just ask the legions of gaping visitors constantly milling around Glacier Point), and it’s apparent that one could spend a lifetime exploring it. Last weekend at least gave me a taste of the major sights, though, and now I definitely have a better sense of what I’d like to do there in the future (I also look forward to getting some photos when the valley isn’t so hazy due to fire).