Well, that makes Monday a little nicer!

My dandelion photo was chosen as The Daily Click at Shutter Sisters today!

Muchas gracias to eagle-eyed Ms. Johanna for telling me about it... I didn't even know the photo was there.

Happy happy. I hope your day is full of little surprises (nice ones only) today, too.

Love Thursday 4

I promise this blog is not going to turn into a political blog. Promise.

But I was listening to the speeches of the RNC last night, to be fair because I listened last week to the Democrats, and my stomach just turned over in the midst of it.

Truly, what is everyone there so fucking damned afraid of? It just can't be terrorists. Is it reading, learning, other cultures, religions, losing a way of life? What?!
What can the constant invocation of fear and the ceaseless beating of war drums gain us?
Security? Hell no. Belligerence can only serve to make us more afraid and more intolerant. And therefore more brittle, more fragile and more unable to adapt.

I hear these speeches to the converted (on both sides, actually) and my mind constantly goes back to George Orwell and reading Nineteen Eighty-Four so many times. One could take many passages from that book and change a few names and you'd be reading today's headlines. Scandals are being spun. People are being teargassed in St. Louis.

Our media constantly manipulates and rewrites history before our eyes.

Please tell me you see this happening too. I know we can't stop being manipulated but at least we can acknowledge that it's happening. Be sentient about the bludgeoning brashness of it all.

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I took this photo last Saturday in the Mission. I took about 500 photos that day and, in addition to getting a crazy sunburn (complete with non-burned bands around my neck where my camera strap was), I got a picture of a vibrant melting pot of humans that comes together only under certain economic and political situations. (Are those the same things? Perhaps.)

The Mission is home to artists, lesbians, Indians, Asians, Hispanics, illegal immigrants, working class, poor. It caters to hipsters with interesting restaurants, edgy bars and eclectic shops. There are alleys that stink of urine. Corner markets that sell fresh fruit and piñatas. Walls are covered in detailed, astoundingly colorful murals. You see gang tags, too.

It's sunny there when other parts of town are shrouded in fog.

The photo above is one of the last photos I took that day. I was tired. I glanced up at the top of a building and there it was: Love to Love. Someone had to make quite an effort to paint those letters there. It made me smile unexpectedly, in all the ways that one could interpret those three words.

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I don't love every one I meet, everyone I know. I never will and don't plan to. I don't love everyone in San Francisco.

I was coming home on the train and thinking about those words, and what message it might give us. What I realized is that I love that this is a place that for better or worse tolerates pretty much anyone who wishes to be here. From what I can tell, people are free to do what they please and although that creates some pretty serious problems here with drugs and homelessness and crime, I can't imagine what this city (and our country) might lose if fearmongering were to set in as a permanent and officiated state of affairs.

The way to control people is through making them afraid.

The way to empower people is by letting them love.

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Let's mix it up, people! Don't let them make us afraid!

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ps. The theme of Love Thursday is a regular part of Shutter Sisters, an inspiration to me and many other photography maniacs...I have no idea what the theme of today's Love Thursday is going to be since I kinda jumped the gun on this one, but you should check out their site.

Happy Love Thursday to all of you.

You Light Me Up

I swear, you guys are better than vitamins and medicine and chicken soup!

I caught this crummy cold/flu/Andromeda Strain so am here in my jammies with a red nose and a fever, and your emails and advice keep coming in about my request/contest/plea-for-advice post.

You guys have me so excited and thrilled that I hardly even notice that I'm running out of Kleenex.

Seriously, you guys rock. You are making one stuffed-up sneezy gal in SF so very happy! Really and truly!

Thank you so much for taking the time to help me on this one!!!

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ps. No, I did not forget about Love Thursday. I put my entry here today. Okay, time for some more Kleenex! *snif*

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Photo happily taken by me.

Love Thursday 2

This girl loves loves loves her guitar. Loves it.
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I don't blame her. This guitar is very beautiful and has mother-of-pearl inlays in the headstock.

And her sweetie gave it to her.
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She played me a song while I took photos of her.
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Check out Love Thursday. It's like having a school assignment that you want to do.
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Happy Love Thursday!

Love Thursday 1

This is my first entry for Love Thursday, a regular wonderful part of Shutter Sisters.

That's the group I was so excited about that I mentioned last week.

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Every Thursday, you are to post a photo of love. It can be any thing you see around you.

I chose this as my first photo because of what the little girl told us about her dog. She said that she had to love him more than other dogs because he only had one eye, and that no one else wanted him. I was so happy for that dog and for the sweetness of the child, and that they were such good friends.

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Love Thursday. I think I can get used to this. See more love here.

Perhaps you might share some love on your blog, too?

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Happy Love Thursday!

Honorable Mention

Well, my lunchtime walks in Chinatown have paid off.

I just have to tell you this little story because I thought it was pretty darn cool...

My sweet friend Gypsy Girl (you remember her) sent me a link to a photography group called Shutter Sisters.

As soon as I saw what the Shutter Sisters were all about, I knew I had to be a part of them. And Gypsy Girl also mentioned a photo walk of San Francisco they were going to have after the photography session at BlogHer, a conference that was going on downtown this weekend (where lots of lady bloggers from the four corners of the earth descended onto the St. Francis Hotel to eat, sleep and breathe all things bloggy. No, I did not go.).

Gypsy Girl and I decided we'd like to join up for the photo walk, and we all met in the lobby at the appointed time. (Within about five minutes, I'd already made a new friend, too, the lovely Abbey.) But let me back up a sec...I'm leaving someone out. One of the reasons I wanted to go on this walk was to meet Karen, because she's one of the Shutter Sisters' team and I think her photography is exceptionally beautiful. (And yes, she is that gorgeous in person.)

So as the large group split up into smaller groups, and I made sure I was in Karen's group after introducing myself, Karen asked if anyone knew enough about downtown to help her lead her group (she's from Houston) and of course, I piped up. I mean, downtown is where I spend most of my life and I try to walk and take photos at lunchtime and before and after work as much as I can there.

I gave Karen two options since we only had 45 minutes for our excursion: the Art Deco buildings or Chinatown. The group resoundingly chose Chinatown, and I was glad because I've gone there so many times just to wander and take photos, so I already knew a lot of great photo ops. I've also done my homework and done a lot of reading about the history of Chinatown, because I like to know things about where I am, and Chinatown fascinates me to no end.

Anyway, long story short, I ended up leading the tour (I'm guessing we had about 30-40 people?), and I had a great time doing it. I got to pull out all of my Chinatown historical trivia: stories about some of the buildings, about the former brothels, the gambling going on in Spofford Alley, my favorite sign (The American Institute of Nose Disease) and to the myriad other sights that make you want to pull out your camera and click away.

I think everyone had a fun time. All the participants are going to send in photos of the walk to a communal group to share, and it will be exciting to see what people took photos of. (I'll let you know when that happens so you can see what we did.)

At the end of the walk, Karen took something off from around her neck and put it around mine: the Shutter Sisters Flashbulb necklace. In recognition of my tourguiding skills, I was made an Honorary Shutter Sister for a day.

Woo hoo!

And do you want to know what the secret best part of that story is? When I first went to the Shutter Sisters website that same day, I fell in love with that little flashbulb necklace and decided I would get one in the future.

And here it was, maybe just six hours later, and I had my own necklace, but the bonus was that it was already infused with the lovely energy of Karen, who'd worn it first.

Okay, I've got to run for now. I've got that tea party I told you about. And I have to figure out what to wear with my new necklace.

Catch you later, guys. ;-)

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ps. Can anyone tell what that little ticket is in the top photo? Bonus points to you sharp-eyed people if you can!