Thursday, September 27, 2012

San Francisco

So tonight is my third night in San Francisco.  I haven't really done much or written much about it for a few reasons.

The first evening I got here around 7.30pm after 7 hours of driving. My tomtom (the GPS navigator I have) decided to take me in enough circles and weird directions for me to get into the city area right into peak hour traffic. So you can imagine my mood. Then it kept pointing me to the wrong hotels! So I was a bit exhausted when I eventually found the correct motel.

Motel I'm in is central but weird. It has automatic lights on timers over the Study and in the Bathroom. So when I'm showering, I have to periodically stick my hand outside the curtain and wave to turn the lights back on.

I resolved to sleep in and do nothing on my first full day in the city. I mostly succeeded, but then I remembered that Amanda Palmer was doing both a (free) ninja gig and signing at a record store and then a full proper performance with her current band, The Grand Theft Orchestra.

I was quite far back.


So with the aid of googlemaps and SF's confusing bus system, I managed to make it to the record store. That was fun, in a dodgey-ish kind of area, loads of hipster cafes, 'tobacco' stores and tattoo and piercing parlors. This is the forth 'gig' of some kind that Amanda Palmer has done that I've been able to get to, the first outside Perth and the second 'ninja' gig. I love how she'll just rock up to an area, no real preparation and proceed to force everyone to have fun.  I got her new album signed too which was cool, even saw her husband Neil Gaiman (v. famous sci-fi and comics writer) wandering around the store at one point.

This shot doesn't really show how foggy it gets. But I like it anyway.

So that was nice. Afterwards I managed to find what must have been the only restaurant in this entire city that couldn't work out what vegetarian meant, but I got a decent meal out of it in the end.

I can't really make up my mind about this city. It's very hilly, the drivers are kinda nuts and it get's really cold in the evenings. There are rules absolutely everywhere too and every cafe that has free wifi (easiest way for me to plan for what to do next) is filled with computer geeks talking up their big projects to one another.

The graffitti around the place has been fun.
Start Wars, a graffiti image with what I think is George W Bush's face in a Darth Vader helmet.


Tomorrow I'm hopefully going to manage being an actual tourist. Today was all about getting decent clothes and working out the preparation for what I'm going to do in New York. I have been asked to interview a very famous artist for a website I guess I'm now volunteering for. Which is exciting, but means I need to start preparing.

I'll be here a couple of weeks. The International Vegetarian Conference is here, on the 5th of October which a few friends are going to, so I figured I might as well go. After that I'm going directly to New York, but straight into the NYCC events. Which will be fun. A friend I made in Seattle will also be reporting there, for the same website I am.


Sunday, September 23, 2012

Arizona and Nevada

Decided I didn't like Los Angeles much, so headed out East towards Arizona. To see the Grand Canyon. Didn't book or plan or anything.

It mostly worked out. Spend one night in a small town called Needles (on the border of Arizona and California). The town was scarily friendly. Like I had to greet and talk to everyone at the pub to get a room in what was possibly the dodgiest motel I have stayed in so far. I might have freaked out slightly when I found hairs in the bed I was given.

When I went to a restaurant to get food the locals there treated me like I was some sort of cultural event arriving. The boy serving me was friendly, but couldn't stop imitating everything I said because apparently my accent is just that exciting! Then when leaving I was cornered by the a alcoholic dude that lives in the motel wanting to spread the word of god or whatever. Friendly, but in that slightly surreal, I don't know if I'm about to get murdered way. At least everyone liked my hair?

My hair back when I was in Redmond, Washington State. Just imagine it faded towards grey and more regrowth.

Strangely enough, the alcoholic dude gave me good advice. I ended up the next day in Williams, Arizona (it was on the way to where I was planning to head). It's a tiny tourist town, about the size of Manjimup but entirely tourist orientated, with the main attraction being an old train line (with renovated carriages from all over the States) that runs up to the Grand Canyon. It was pretty nice! Some decent restaurants with vegetarian options, lots of old Route 66, 'Native American' and cowboy memorabilia tourist shops.

Being 'robbed' They had horses and everything.

The day up to the Grand Canyon was pretty fun. Before the train left there was a fun wild west cowboys skit and on the way home the train was 'held up' by the same guys in a 'voluntery robbery' and chased by the sheriff. A lot of tourist trap and cheesiness, but it was a lot of fun. Also meant I could enjoy the Canyon properly instead of being too tired and sore to really appreciate it.
Squirrel! Also the Grand Canyon in the background there.

The Canyon itself was just amazing. It's one of those things you can't really take photos of, the scope is just too huge and has a presence the camera can't capture. I did try though.

Not even close to capturing how beautiful this place is.

I'm heading back inland and west. Mostly because I seem to be allergic to the Mountains and deserts. I'm sick of sneezing and blood noses. I'm at a stop over somewhere in Nevada, I'm hiding in a hotel a couple of days because I blistered my feet quite badly over the past week and I'm sick of my feet hurting. On the way here I did stop at Hoover Dam.

A big dam
I wasn't really that impressed with Hoover Dam. The tour and parking were expensive and didn't show you all that much. The speeches and movie they got you to watch didn't really put the Dam into context either. Just a bunch of dry facts with a thick layer of patriotism that I had to try really hard not to laugh at. No real humanity, which was frustrating.

The bridge and some of the structures on the otherside. It is hard to take a good photo of a thing you are standing on.
I sound harsh and it is an amazing structure, particularly when you remember that it is 100 years old... but I would have liked a little less America, the future of Modernity! being shoved in my face and more about the people and the conflict involved in such a massive engineering feat. I mean a lot of poor and desperate people died building the bloody thing, some analysis of how and why, rather than just a plaque and a vague statement of how deaths weren't properly recorded would have been good.

American flag between some appropriated Egyptian statues and iconography. Because who needs an objective view on history when you have AMERICA. (Again, at Hoover Dam.)





Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Los Angeles

I'm in Los Angeles at the moment.

Nothing really to say about this place. It's big, spread out, smelly, dirty. Driving was pretty scary. Californian roads are pretty terrible and the drivers absolutely terrifying.

I came here mostly for Comikaze, a pop culture convention, so I could meet Eliza Frye, the girl whose artwork I keep buying and covering the house in. Turns out she was very cool and lovely, so I've now got even more of her stuff. 

I also got to meet a whole heap of the girls involved in the Womanthology project, which was pretty cool. Barbara Kesel (a writer) is amazing, very quick and witty so talking to her and listening to her speak was worth it.

The Womanthology ladies


Walking around and exploring also meant I stumbled across the red carpet for the Emmy awards, while everyone was arriving and having their photos taken. That was neat I guess. Not really my thing.

I also bought (very cheap) concert tickets for on the 25th here in Los Angeles for Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra. I'm excited to be going, but I really don't know what to do in the week in between. I'm thinking I might drive to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon, I've already been in this city too long.

Sorry I don't really have any pictures. I figure you guys aren't interested in the stupid number of comics I bought.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Keep forgetting to update

In Las Vegas at the moment. Just here for a night as it was on the way from Denver to LA.

It's not really my thing here. Just so over the top in it's silliness ridiculous consumerism. From what I can tell people drink, gamble and buy stuff. Maybe also take photos of the lights and themselves with random costumed people walking along "The Strip".

US$40 for a night in a four star hotel though is pretty nice. Suspect though I'll be unimpressed when I find out how much parking overnight cost me.

Also they have a flying fox across the mall thing. Conveniently my hotel is near the end point and so that was an easy way to get back. Got this brilliant picture from it too. Photo is a photo of the photo they took of me. Apparently electronic copies are a bit beyond them.



Best bit of this city.

I'm sure at some point I'll be organised enough to write about Wyoming, Salt Lake City, Colorado, my friends in Denver and southern Utah.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Belated photo post.

As requested some images.  From Portland through to Idaho Falls. I don't have any of Salt Lake City yet. The drive was nice here but all the stops (and what I've seen of the city) have been kinda ugly.


The Rose Test Gardens in Portland were amazing. I couldn't get any landscape shots that did the place justice. I definitely picked the right time of year to visit this place.

I did have fun trying to be all arty taking close-ups of the more interesting flowers though. I loved the two tone roses and the dark purple and black ones were also pretty cool.

The 'authentic' Japanese gardens nearby were amazing as well. This is about the point where my camera ran out of batteries and I started using the ipad though.

You can kind of see one of the huge Coi(sp?) they in this picture on the bottom right hand side. Also in the background the huge fir tree forest the entire garden was set in (which is not very authentic, but was beautiful).

The view from the top of a hill rest-stop in Rural Oregon.

The rest-stops here are amazing. They all have buildings with vending machines, drink fountains, airconditioning and automatically flushing toilets. Since Idaho I think all have had free wifi and most have loads of tourist information (booklets and not just signage) plus payphones. Some have even had free coffee! The wifi has been fantastic. My tomtom is mostly pretty good, but it doesn't always show me the quickest or most interesting way. I also sometimes forget to book accommodation until I get halfway to a destination.

Me at Idaho Falls. Under a bridge. Unfortunately I didn't think to get a photo of myself until I was past the falls. I'll save those for another post though. It was strange being basically in the middle of a desert in the center of a continent and all of a sudden WATER EVERYWHERE though.

I'm currently in Salt Lake City, Utah. I traveled east from Oregon through Idaho and tomorrow I set out further east through Wyoming to Denver in Colorado to meet a friend of a friend who is letting me stay with her a few nights. She assures me she has cats that like strangers patting them! I might be missing Diesel the Cat a little.