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did you feel the earth move? um, not really There was an earthquake this week. I never felt it - it was in the Bay Area - but apparently it was felt in Sacramento. It measured 5.6 on the Richter scale, which makes it the biggest since Loma Prieta in 1989, but there was little damage. Still, the news channels did their best to get as excited as possible, featuring interviews with people who recounted tales they'll no doubt be telling to their grandchildren, "yeah the chandeliers started moving, we didn't really feel much," and "things were shaking a bit, and i had to ask someone afterwards if that was an earthquake, and it was," that sort of stuff. You could tell the TV presenters, sat in Sac, were a little disappointed by some of the callers, the lack of drama. Close-up shots of some jars that had rolled lazily off of a supermarket shelf ("breaking news!" ), reports of library books that had fallen over, Mark Finan the kcra3 chief weather lord pouting because he doesn't get to talk earthquake like everybody else. At least it wasn't more serious. With southern CA suffering from those dreadful fires, the last thing we'd need is for the Bay to get the Big One they've expected for years.
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4.11.07 06:05 |
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if the wind changes you'll stay lke that
november has begun, which means it's almost thanksgiving and nearly christmas, for those who don't know (you should do, of course, bob geldof did try to tell you). Take that look from off your face. Maybe I don't want to fly, wanna live don't wanna die. anyway, this was on E & 2nd, long droopy lazy shadows, the Sun goes down on a saturday and when it comes back it will be an hour later (or is it earlier) than expected, yes the clocks go back tonight, but that doesn't mean you have to bring your clocks to the returns desk at target (though statistically the odds are good that some bloody plonker will). 
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4.11.07 06:36 |
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sketchcrawl #16: san francisco (page 1)
I took part in another worldwide sketchcrawl, number 16 no less, but my first in San Francisco. I've sketched in SF before of course, I know the ropes, but this is an organized event, with a starting point and a finishing point; beginning at the Ferry Building and ending at Rogue's pub in Washington Square. I was using a larger watercolour sketchbook than normal, and decided that the first page would be largely made up of tones of blue, grey and green.
I started early, 10am, and was surprised at just how sunny it was. I found some shade and drew Sinbad's, near the Ferry Building. Named of course after the chubby scouse window-cleaner from Brookside (I think I saw Mick Johnson and Ron Dicko going in, maybe I just hadn't slept much the night before).
The sketchcrawl began at 11am, at Peet's Coffee, a flashmob of busy scribblers all sat around several big tables, drawing each other. I sat and drew one perosn, before deciding to abandon the groupedness and set off toute seule. The rendez-vous would be at 5pm at Rogue's pub, Washington Square. I went outside and drew a bike and some pigeons, and a guy sitting on the ground who looked a bit like my mate Simon (sketched in the same way in the London sketchcrawl in May).
By 1pm I was nearly ready for lunch, so I sketched the Ferry Building and moved on towards North Beach. To be continued... |
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7.11.07 00:45 |
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sketchcrawl #16: san francisco (page 2)
...the sketchcrawl continues... I left the Ferry building and headed towards North Beach, by way of Sydney G Walton Square, plus a pretty nice sandwich. I went back to colour, and drawing trees with shadows in a slightly comicbook style... I continued onwards (and, dare i say it, upwards), up pacific, skirting the financial district, and found a spot to stand and draw the view down past the transamerica pyramid.
Shortly after 3pm I walked about North Beach, the colourful Italian part of San Francisco, finding lots of colourful things to draw but nowhere to sit and draw them. And the late afternoon sunlight was so nice! (and it was late afternoon, as the clock has gone back) I walked up green, and found an interesting looking music store, selling instruments and equipment and...actually I didn't go in, I juts sat outside and drew, which was fun. I wasn't in the mood to mooch. I sat on my bum though, getting a little dusty.
Ahortly before the endpoint of the 'crawl, I sketched the receding sky behind a typical San Francisco telegraph pole. And then met up with what remained of the sketchcrawl mob at the Rogue pub on Washington Square. An enjoyable, if tiring, day. When's the next one..?
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10.11.07 03:07 |
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take me in and dry the rain
it rained today. this meant that the kcra3 news team got over-excited, and wet themselves. it was the kcra3 chief lord-high supreme meterologist mark finan's day off (either that or he was out delirious in the rain with dave bender), so the substitute dirk verdoorn (aka vice-captain dirk) was wheeled in to salivate over the precipitation. everybody on the news desk got to comment, even pamela wu and her huge immovable hair (it did wobble slightly last week; that's how they knew there had been an earthquake), and Dirk recommended bundling up tonight, staying in and eating soup. Because it was raining a bit. I'm from the UK. Believe me, these Californians really are wimps when it comes to the weather. the second news item (less important to kcra3 than 'it's raining', apparently) was news of a shooting (not fatal, thankfully) in a motel today in Davis, just yards in fact from where I drew the above picture! Actually on the other side of the road there. Police are still looking for the gunman. I knew none of this of course when I was drawing, though I had overheard a few people in passing talking as if there was something to talk about, mentioning 'motel 6' and 'abandoned car'. I just sat in burger king, making use of the free refills on diet coke. and below, that was in the arboretum, and my mind was on getting more RAM. I wasn't too happy with it though. Perhaps I too need more RAM.
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11.11.07 08:43 |
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it's only a matter of time before we all vanish into thin air Yes, petescully be still here…I have had a visiting friend from the uk, so have not been active on the web or drawing front. I have been pretty busy, holidaying as it were in the very places seen and described on these very pages, climbing the uc berkeley campanile, enjoying lashings of turkey in santa rosa, singing maxwell’s silver hammer to a crowded pub in g street davis, watching ultimate fighting on a big screen with disturbingly enthusiastic midtown sacramentans, sorrowful for scotland and despondent for england, eating el salvadoran burritos in san francisco’s mission, duetting as the proclaimers proclaiming something about 500 miles in a bar in the marina, rocky iii on a laptop screen in union square, food, water and a helluvalotta beer. But not much drawing. I must have carried my sketchbook everywhere I went, but just could not get any out. So I’ve got a load of ink and paint stored up inside, and will certainly explode these next few weeks before my next visitor arrives for christmas… But my blog keeps vanishing. Now you see it, now you do not. The header-image, seen by some but not by others, is vanishing even from my screen, if the blog ever appears. It may be time for a move. My substitute blogs are on standby. 20six may get the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’. If jol and mourinho weren't even safe... Back to the sketchbook!
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28.11.07 01:14 |
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