More Rock and Roll

A few more shots from the archives. At top it's Bruce Springsteen at the Paramount Theater in Oakland on October 30th, 1975, about a week after his picture appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek simultaneously. A very young-looking Miami Steve Van Zandt on the right and Clarence Clemons on the left.  Next is Bob Dylan from the Oakland Coliseum during his return tour with the Band. Not a very sharp photograph. I was shooting with a fixed 300 mm lens from some distance. Below Dylan is one of three frames I took of U2 during their show at The Warfield on Market Street in San Francisco on November 29th, 1981. It's the first and last time I saw them live. Never been a big fan for some reason. I am, however, a huge fan of the writer Dave Barry. He plays from time to time with a group of writers calling themselves The Rock Bottom Remainders whose members include Stephen King, Ridley Pearson (shown here with Dave), Amy Tan, Roy Blount Jr., Mitch Albom, and others I can't remember. They always feature a ringer, a "real" musician, and that night's guest was Roger McGuinn from the Byrds. The opening act was an unannounced Robin Williams who delivered a very blue and funny half hour set. This was at the venerable Fillmore in San Francisco. I snuck in the minuscule Pentax Optio S4 to grab a few very noisy shots. Rock Bottom Remainders, by the way, are books that didn't sell and have been relegated to the cut-out shelves in what used to be book stores at heavily-discounted prices.

A Day in the City

Yesterday was a long, but very enjoyable, day. According to the Jawbone walk/sleep wristband my wife purchased for us recently, my son, Jason, and I took 14,500 something steps during the course of our trek through San Francisco. If a step is three feet, that means about nine miles. Maybe eight, but I'm still tired. We began the morning at the Caffe Trieste in North Beach, haunt of hippies, beats, and countless others through the years. Even my grandson Curtis wears a beret. After that, it was a stroll through Chinatown, and then the climb up to Coit Tower, a place I had never seen despite my forty-five plus years in the area. From there, we walked down, thank God, to the Embarcadero where the grandkids were anxious to visit the Exploratorium. Pictures two and three are from the hike down, number three in Levi Strauss Plaza. The next four are from the Exploritorium; a convex mirror, some sort of mirror that paints the subjects rather abstractly, a machine that blows smoke rings, and my grandson in profile in a classic short movie theater. Jason I and left the others and made our way down the Embarcadero to see the America's Cup Yacht pavillon and environs. Then back to the Ferry Building where the mushroom photograph was taken. A really nice day with the family.

Gondole! Gondole!

I would imagine that there are many people who have lived in Venice their entire lives and never set foot in a gondola. For many tourists, however, the gondola is almost the symbol of Venice, the most iconic representation of the city. I have taken probably three rides over the years, with and without opera singers. I'm a tourist too, and have enjoyed the experience because it's always been shared with people who have never been to Venice before. I thought the sign in English, "Gondola Service" was a bit tacky. How many people are confused by the Italian "Sevicio Gondole"?

Santa Margherita in the Morning

There are only two ways to insure good light: get up in the morning before sunrise, and be there before and after sunset. This was a morning excursion of about an hour and a half and, except for fishermen, there was almost no one else about. My wife really enjoys photography, but not enough to get out of bed, so I was the lone ranger.

The Colors of Burano

Obviously, if you're a black and white aficionado, these will not be to your taste. As should be just as obvious, I love color, and there's no place on earth with as much color as Burano. I've tried to keep the laundry to a minimum, but there's no escaping it here. All the tourists who make the trip out to this rather secluded island keep, for the most part, to the main street where the restaurants are. You can mosey around the back streets to your heart's content and see almost no one. I saw no other photographers and only a smattering of the residents. There don't seem to be any hotels in Burano. Maybe there are rooms to rent in private homes, but I didn't see any advertised. 

Amusement Parks With Davis

My grandson Davis stayed with us for a week, and we had the chance to take him to a couple of amusement parks in the area, places I normally wouldn't set foot in. Seeing him have fun was well worth it though. I took my Sony RX 100 to see if it was possible to get some interesting photographs in an environment I hadn't been in since my son was little. The top photograph is a salt water taffy machine at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It should be called the Cement Walk as there are no boards to be seen. In the third photograph, Davis is gazing longingly at the candy-making process. The other four photos were taken a few days later at Great America in Santa Clara, right next to the San Francisco Forty Niner's new stadium. Although I didn't ride on the contraption in photo number four, we did go on the old wooden roller coaster. We were set to get on the new high-speed one, but the wait was over an hour. No thanks.

Vanishing Points Venice

All taken early in the morning to ensure as few people as possible in the image. Not much else to say about them.