shewhomust: (bibendum)
[personal profile] shewhomust
Continuing my attempt to complete writing up our last visit to the States before we set off on the next one, I was encouraged by finding the notebook: no, I don't write these posts completely from memory, I have a notebook and a camera.

The notebook tells me that we spent St. George's day in San Francisco, but all it has to say about it is that Russian Hill smells of jasmine, and that a sudden thicket of rosemary comes as a relief. So this will be a picture-heavy post. Think of it as a sequence of postcards.

[livejournal.com profile] desperance accompanied us on our exploration of Russian Hill and Telegraph Hill. I wanted to visit the Coit Tower, and there may have been a bit of a Tales of the City theme in there, too. And there were gardens -



- sometimes there were gardens overflowing into the street, sometimes the street was no more than a narrow path that led up through the garden, so that we felt as if we were climbing up someone's garden path. But always uphill, steeply. We paused for breath and were distracted by the emerald flash of a parakeet, or the glimmer of the bay far below, or just a view of the city:



Eventually we emerged breathless at the Coit Tower, and had plenty of time to catch our breath, because I was entranced by the murals. [livejournal.com profile] desperance and [livejournal.com profile] durham_rambler were very patient while I took a ridiculous number of pictures. It's hard to choose just one, and I was very toen: surely the grape harvest would be more suited to the themes of this journal? But there's something visually pleasing about these vegetables, so let's have the healthy option:



Later we found ourselves at the Art School, and as it was open for a display of student work, we went in to see the Diego Rivera mural:



I can't remember anything about the student work on show, except that I was unimpressed, and thought it must be discouraging to be producing art that looked so small beside this big strong statement. But I am so generally unreceptive to contemporary art that this view should probably be discounted.

Despite which, I'll end with an abstract:


Date: 2014-08-29 11:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] asakiyume.livejournal.com
Each one of these photos is just *gorgeous*. The view of the city looks somehow like a medieval painting, the sort where all the important buildings loom large over decorative city walls, and out in the bay there's a boat that's half the size of the entire city. Something about the size seems off, and everything is somehow beautiful and jewel-like.

And the Diego Rivera mural--lovely. And the abstract: very fun.

Date: 2014-08-30 05:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shewhomust.livejournal.com
Thank you so much! And yes, it's the flattened perspective of that view which really appealed to me, too.

we walked much of this..

Date: 2014-08-30 12:14 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pigshitpoet.livejournal.com
i've done that route, and all, except for the last warped windows, looks familiar.. makes me want to go back. i loved the feel of that city when i was there. a sense of peace and calm walking through the streets, but the hills! oh, those hills...

Re: we walked much of this..

Date: 2014-08-30 05:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shewhomust.livejournal.com
I live in a city of many hills, which makes it easier! But I'm sorry you don't recognise the windows - I have no idea where they were, so it would be good if someone could tell me...

Re: we walked much of this..

Date: 2014-09-01 08:58 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pigshitpoet.livejournal.com
concrete jungle..

Date: 2014-08-30 02:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] weegoddess.livejournal.com
These are wonderful photos. And I'm cheered to see that you're still keen to post your travel-mentaries.

We'll have to find good photo-ops for your postings about your visit here. I suspect that there will be many.

Date: 2014-08-30 05:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shewhomust.livejournal.com
I'm looking forward to that - and to much else!

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