City by the Bay

I’m woolly from lack of sleep and too much talking and thinking and went outside to enjoy the seasonable unusual hot weather in San Francisco. Here is why I went outside – this is the view from my hotel room:

10Bay

I walked over to the Ferry Building and smelled Fairy Cap and Black Trumpet mushrooms and almost walked off the planet; I had a small cup of Turkish Pistacio gelato and came back down to earth; and then I sampled a sea salt caramel truffle and took flight again. Would you look at these Heirloom tomatoes:

10Heirloom

Why did all this abundance get on my nerves, I wondered to myself, in remembering the cornucopia years of my life in California. The bounty that exists here makes me flinch when the normal reaction should be to say hell yes, but instead I find abundance overwhelms me. A friend of a friend designed this rocket ship and good Gavin Newsom who always has good ideas decided to let it go up on the Embarcadero as temporary art, because everyone knows if it were erected as permanent art the entire Bay Area would rise up in protest – transient is the world here in San Francisco where most people, things, and art are just passing through and that’s how they roll.

10Rocket

But in this modern city by the Bay, I find most of the designs that I stumble upon whether a tea cup or a postcard are all retro – why’s that? Even the rocket ship that you cannot see in its entirety above is pure retro rocket a la George Jetson.

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