vintage bike race in tuscany.

(photo: nadia shira cohen/source: new york times)

the famous race, or Giro d’Italia, circa 1930, requires only a vintage bike
and clothing and a desire to eat as much as one can while riding. i love italy.

full new york times article

san francisco: miniature city.

San Francisco: The Miniature City from MINIMUS on Vimeo.

(thanks, ronny!)

marine layer.

fuzzy phone picture.

yosemite.

it's taken me five years of living in san francisco, but i finally made it to yosemite; and for a pretty magical weekend. it was far more beautiful than i imagined, and in this way that makes a person feel really small and expansive at the same time. maybe you know what i mean.

these first pictures are of the tiny waterfall oasis ronny and matt found before we all arrived at the camp.

babble babble...

babble.

where's waldo. except it's matt.

ronny being cute.

back at camp, the rest of the gang started to filter in around 5 o'clock. it's a hell of a drive from the city through some very interesting little towns. for example, i passed a cactus shop in manteca that i'm sure was called "pooty's cactus". oh, little california cities. so cute. so strange. the longest part of the drive doesn't begin until until you hit yosemite national park itself. it's exciting to actually get there, but then it's miles and hours of switchbacks and altitude adjustment before you're anywhere near a stopping point. pretty treacherous, but i'm a very courageous driver. ;)

friend love.

the boys found (fake) weapons in the woods. here they are hunting (real) bears...

andrew... sort of like peter and the wolf.


taylor's an authentic idahoan.

much fun was had in the evening, and the last of our crew arrived at around 2 AM after we'd crashed. i'm sure i thought they were bears when i heard them moving around outside, but i didn't dare open my tent. the next day all of us were there and we hiked to elizabeth lake. yosemite is huge. so huge. so we had to drive a few miles to the trailhead to start the long walk up to the water. there was a grade increase of 800 feet over the course of two miles. someone did the math, but regardless of the percentage, that was a steep climb. the endup was worth it though. the lake was beautiful and the trail itself was all sun and shadow and dancing trees.

five o'clock shadow.

see? dancing trees.


i swear this chipmunk was posing for me.


sweet sugar pines.

when we arrived at the lake, i think we were all a little awestruck. the sun was still just peeking from behind the mountain that rose out of the water. everything was clear and bright and so, so quiet. so silent that when i bit into an apple at the bank, the sound of breaking skin echoed all over.

the majesty was broken when josh decided that the giant boulder off-center in the water was reachable...

the pictures get even funnier.





they made it to the rock...
but then had to somehow get back...


which was slippery...

difficult...


and pretty hilarious.

the next day was warm and golden; possibly warm and golden enough to cause heatstroke. we packed up camp and set out to find half dome. i got a good shot of it from the road, but we ended up sitting around a little brook under some other dome. or maybe it was half dome. no idea. it was all pretty beautiful though.

this is half dome from the road. take that, ansel adams.

is that you half dome?


i think so.

i'm not so sure...


is sepia more convincing?


my best look of wonder.


more sepia.


trying to take a picture of myself and the pebble rocks and failing a little.




matt can juggle! who knew?


lovecats.


this guy was hanging out with a doe and two little baby deer.


she kept moving between me and her fawns as though she knew i was trying
to get a picture of her kids. at least she didn't get all bjork on me about it.

the sun was gone shortly after that, and we started the long drive home. that was an adventure in itself, complete with highway closures and el pollo loco.

goodnight, yosemite.

incidentally, there's no such thing as bear repellent, and the "spray" the guy at sports basement talked me out of was just bear-sized mace. eh.

also, if you want to hike half dome, you've got to sign up six months in advance and obtain a waiver. in addition, you'll need to put aside two days. i'm telling you because no one told me, and i rolled into there thinking hiking that thing was an option. next summer for sure.

cheers.

ferocious.

secluded river.

this labor day weekend was a love-filled adventure, but i can't tell you where i was. after all, i didn't hike three miles barefoot, high along jagged shale cliffs in nothing but a bikini so everyone and their friends could find our secret spot. the trek along the river was beautiful but brutal. there were parts that seemed inaccessible, where i cut and burned my naked feet on the dry rocks, and slipped all over the submerged ones where we crossed the rapids. we braved water snakes and bear poop and hiked for what seemed like hours before the spot unfolded before us just as the elements had us dripping with sweat and sunbaked. it's deep into the river bends, with one bank high and bald from routine wildfires and the other lush and green with sugar pines and oaks all green in the summery california light. there are huge slate rocks paired with deep, blue water; perfect for cannonballs, and clear all the way down to the pebbled bottom. we'll go back, i'm sure. but it's never like the first time again, is it? here are some pictures i took on the way there, but shhh.

slate and shale.

footbridge...

ariana and i taking in the sun.


olive after a day of mountain-goating and swimming.

a few of my favorite people (halfway there!)

today.

the why.

I resent expanses of urban space that are useless to me; spaces beyond function; beyond people. I want beauty and purpose in walkable, workable avenues. I see commerce dovetailed with architecture old and new, and skylines that expand our sense of nature. I want stuff for the senses in the places we use; a city unafraid of unfolding to meet its working and living people with forethought and a desire to be what it should.

And when I’ve begun, I’ll walk though my city, warmed by the details and mobilized by the design. I’ll declare that planning spaces requires aesthetic right where it functions. I will explore those sad, unknown pockets and give them reasons to live, inviting the pulse of people who will both use and enjoy them. I will make use of sonorous things, with wide angles where echoes ping and where people stand inside, in sunlight, bathed and sheltered as they move. I’ll demand green places in the coldest concrete avenues, and open dead houses the way a new baby opens her eyes, letting light in and bringing life to whole communities.

reykjavik, anyone?

i've just returned from a trip to reykjavik, iceland with pictures that i hope will do the place justice. two important points, though: it was my first trip and i didn't stay nearly as long as i wanted to (a little over a week in june). that said, our trip begins in san francisco, a mere four days after completing my second aids ride and amid a very real feeling of postpartum ride depression. it's typical to feel intense nostalgia for lifecycle after it's over, and my thought was that traveling to a place i've never been would be just the ticket. so off i flew to the northernmost part of europe with my incredibly fun friend, julie, in tow. we stopped off in boston for a short layover, a drink, the sketchiest lunch ever, and a bit of immature running around the airport, and then we were up in the air again. i felt exhausted in this really confused way by the time we were over greenland, and looking out the window into the clear, crisp daylight one only experiences in the stratosphere, it occurred to me it was 12:00 AM. the "midnight in the sun" thing, while scientifically fascinating, proved to be a theme i'd have trouble getting used to while in iceland.

nightime over reykjavik.

julie'd arranged for a "cab" to pick us up from the airport. in reality, it was a bright blue mercedes bus of some kind driven by an equally as colorful local guy who told us lots of stories about iceland, his daughter in school in the states, the weather and the economy. and all in the 45 minutes it took us to get to our hotel, a room with a view, which turned out to be bonkers for the price. fancy, sweet, and right in the heart of the city, too. the furniture, like the architecture, we'd find, is quite modern, and quite... unique to iceland. i mean, what the hell IS this?

there was a lot of walking around and quite a lot more eating. i quickly decided prikið was my favorite place, both for coffee and breakfast. the bar itself has multiple personalities. it's cozy inside, with two booths and one (maybe two) tables. each time i was there they were playing american soul music. and the good stuff, too: tina turner's i can't stand the rain, al green's love and happiness, etc. all of which julie and i sang aloud with (and possibly chair danced to). the breakfast menu ranges from cereal, or a delicious bagel with skyr (icelandic strained cheese) to the "hangover killer," which consists of a "hangover sandwich" a "bruce willis" milkshake with jack daniel's and a painkiller tablet. and at night the whole thing morphs into the place to be for hip-hop. awesome.

prikið

americano (what else)?

reykjavik is known for its architecture and art, and as i took it all in, it was pretty obvious why that is. there are many features and landmarks worth visiting, such as the hallgrimskirkja, a lutheran cathedral designed by state architect guðjón samúelsson, which i thought was super-impressive and very nordic looking.

so nordic.

i have a lot of other shots from just walking around. the city of reykjavik itself is very charming and cute, and the museums were all beautiful. and free! there's a lot of street art, art-art, performance art, and otherwise. the locals were out in their shops and everywhere, and i became more inspired everytime i saw something or met someone. highlight: i met gaga skorrdal in her store and she tried to convince me that not only did the multi-textured pulled-wool "whale" cap she placed on my head look beautiful, but that i should buy it immediately. i have no idea why we didn't take a picture of that interaction, because the hat was very, very cool. just not my scene. gaga is charming in person, and i'll be sure to visit her when i go back to iceland.

inside the photography museum.

tryggvagata.


gaga's shop and gallery.

in the middle of the week we took a rented car through the haukadalur valley to geysir and gullfoss. the valley is some of the most beautiful and geologically active land i've ever seen.

golden.


"capri-sonne": driving to geysir.


geysir.

we took a puffin watching boat tour as well, during which the captain of the sightseeing vessel convinced me it'd be a bad idea to actually eat a puffin, despite my insistence that it was featured on menus all over the city. apparently only tourists do that, and i think julie was relieved to hear i'd given up on the idea. a lot of the restaurants in the central part of reykjavik were selling whale, as well. i'm not convinced the locals eat whale either, but i'd have abstained anyway. i'm pretty sure eating a whale is like eating a person.

too cute to eat. seriously.


puffins aren't so graceful in the air, but the landscape makes up for them.

bláa lónið, or "blue lagoon" in grindavik was easily the highlight of the trip. if you haven't been to iceland before and you do nothing else, do this. blue lagoon consists of the super-clean silica and sulfur rich runoff from a geothermal power plant called svartsengi. it's a supernaturally blue pool of water the color of hpnotiq, with a giant natural steam vent right in the middle of it that boils over frequently and adds more warmth to the already naturally 104 degree water. it's like nothing you've ever seen before, and your skin will feel amazing when you're out. also, they serve beer at the edge of the water, so if you can drag yourself along the lava rock to the bar, i recommend a nice, cold viking.

this. was awesome.

steamed europeans.

every harbor city has a harbor "walk" of some sort, and reykjavik is no exception. there's a lot of construction going on at the moment as they complete the concert hall there, but we were still able to see "solfar", the semi-abstract viking ship sculpture by jón gunnar arnason, which is really pretty much magical on a clear day.

solfar.

we stopped in toronto on the way back to san francisco and holy-crap-it-was-pride! so, grumpy but somehow still motivated, we rented the tiniest kia ever and proceeded to cram a weekend of drinking and dancing into a short, thirteen hour layover. highlights: a drag show featuring all concepts of gender, the pet shop boys, julie being attacked by a gigantic makeout bandit, and me getting "married" to a drunken gayboy who wouldn't tell me his name (so i called him "amir"). we were surrounded by beautiful people, but managed to attract the trashiest girls ever. the bonus was that their idea of buying us drinks was to bring over whole pitchers of beer. each. i actually, really, honest-to-goodnessly made a new pen-pal friend from norway, too. at some point we ate the worst thai food ever thrown together. dear french-canadian boys: you're gorgeous, but no one is allowed to put peanut butter in pineapple fried rice. thanks. after the bars closed, we drove to the hilton "because it's fancy" singing mister mister's book of love with interpretive spirit fingers and everything, and promptly fell asleep in the parking lot (but not before turning on the seat warmers). all true. so fun.

i have tons of other pictures at the link below,
so if you enjoyed the highlights, check them out:


click me! click me! click me!

iceland2010