The Emeryville Image Show

Last weekend I went to the Emeryville Image Show
(http://www.mpmpresents.com/index.html). Collectors of all sorts of images sell there.

I am thinking I might enjoy collecting old images and maybe having a small side business selling them. Much easier to store and ship than camera equipment. I was most taken by the stereoview I saw there. I'll post the few stereo cards I purchased when I get a chance. I didn't find any of Santa Cruz or Alum Rock Park which I was most looking for but I did get a nice stereoview of the first Cliff House and one of Half dome as well as some others.

Here are a few post cards I got there.

I don't know if this is the same pier that is in SC now but it looks to be in close to the same place.


Pacific Avenue in the teens or twenties.




Looking back the other direction on Pacific.


Next is the Cooper House. I would like to find a better picture of the whole thing but this should do for now.
(I really need to get a better blog host. For some reason Blogger wont let me put the text where I want it. Argh.)
Natural Bridges when there were still two bridges. I'm looking for a picture from the other side.

Lighthouse Point before they put in most of the fences.

Big Sur, Big Creek Reserve

We spent the past weekend camping in Big Sur and walking in the Big Creek Reserve. Normally Big Creek is closed to the public but Saturday was the second annual open house. It looks like this will happen every first Saturday after Mother's day from here on out. I highly recommend it.

Here are a few photos from Big Creek. More are

available at:http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=sh9x23e.9psignei&x=1&y=faf6f3 and http://www.flickr.com/photos/56679160@N00/sets/72057594142901641/

Nina Paley's latest: Sita sings the Blues

I first fell in love with Nina's work when she did a strip in a local tabloid called: "Nina's Adventures in Santa Cruz". Here is her latest. Pretty wild. Caution: Graphic cartoon violence in the second half. Watch out if you get upset seeing poor little cartoon characters eat it.

http://www.ninapaley.com/2006/05/fakin-it.html

Let Abbey Road Be

Although I have always been a Beatles fanatic, I have never really realized how much a part of the lives of my generation they have been (even for the people who were not Beatles fans) until recently while I have been enjoying the performances that the White Album Ensemble has been giving of all of the albums the Beatles never performed live.

Last night we went to their performance of "Let Abbey Road Be". The last of those albums at the Rio. It was wonderful as all of these have been.

Sorry for the blurry snapshot but hopefully it gives a little sense of the feeling of the concert.

Ducky Derby

A great charity event if you have kids.

I was told that originally they floated all these rubber ducks down a section of the San Lorenzo river by the beach but one year a surge pushed them all on shore so they now use this artificial stream in Harvey West.

Garfield Park Library

The Garfield Park Library is one of a number of public buildings in Santa Cruz designed by William Weeks. I believe the sign said it was built in 1914.

This is exactly what I think a neighborhood library should be. Handsome and inviting from the outside, cozy on the inside. perfectly in scale with the westside "circles" neighborhood.

Under the tree in the lawn there is a plaque that we had never noticed before saying something like: "Stop here and say a prayer for peace." Donated by the local VFW chapter.(!)

Bay Mission Market Gone?

The Bay Mission Market (at the corner of Bay and Mission of course) has long been a Santa Cruz fixture albeit a funky one. I remember a newspaper article about it when I was a student in the late seventies. The reporter had found products on their shelves from the early sixties containing cyclamates which had been banned 15-20 before.

I have wondered how it has stayed in business so long. the past few years it seems mostly to subsist on alcohol sales from the look of the ads that were in the window.

Walking by it to the bus stop this morning I saw this sign in the window. The insides are pretty much gutted.

I wonder if they are just remodeling, putting it up for lease or turning it into another type of business entirely. It has always seemed to me much too valuable a piece of real estate to let deteriorate the way it has. If it was a real grocery store it would be very convenient for UC students to pop down and buy groceries rather than heading all the way into town. I know there has been a shopper shuttle that goes down to Mission Safeway but this would be an easy straight shot down Bay via bus or car and would also be easier for newbies to find.

Turkeys in Santa Cruz?

This is the first time I have ever seen a turkey in Santa Cruz. It was wandering aroung the parking spaces for the Chancellor's office at the top of the festival glen. We saw a bunch of wild turkeys up in Clearlake a few weeks ago. I wonder if the extra rain this year is providing more food for them and increasing their population?