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I often go under the bridge to check the waves. On Friday, they were hitting the seawall, with spray flying. I started talking to a park ranger, and he told me to go inside the fort, and up to the top (four stories, cast iron staircases).
I grew up in San Francisco, I’ve been down there dozens of times, and I never knew you could go inside the fort. It’s an amazing building, built in 1853-1861. It’s open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and well worth a visit. I’ll post more photos in coming days. This was a thrill.
Read More …
Along the same lines, we have just finished our small book DRIFTWOOD SHACKS: ANONYMOUS ARCHITECTURE ALONG THE NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COAST. When we have copies ready to go, I’ll make an announcement.
Seaweed on drying rack (blades of bull kelp). I dry it, grind it into coarse powder and put on most everything.
On the road again
Heard about a 2-story driftwood shack at Navarro beach, road to beach closed because Navarro River has not broken thru to ocean, making big flooded Estero. Tried to walk thru yesterday afternoon, but water soon up over knees, so had to settle for this long shot. I’m heading south today to another long sandy beach with a bunch of shacks. Glad I got this iPhone 8 plus, way improved camera. BUT am so pissed off I forgot to bring my grown-up camera (Olympus OM-D) with telephoto lens. Damn! Still, you get the idea. Watch for my new book, Driftwood Shacks: Anonymous Architecture Along the California Coast. As a result of this trip, the book has grown by at least a dozen pages. This is the first in a field of small print-on-demand books we’re going to try. I have a ton of things that I’d like to make small books out of. Barns, motorcycles, New York City, L.A., Baja California Sur…
Meanwhile, finishing 2nd draft of my book on the ’60s, present working title: “Something’s Happening…
Haven’t got subtitle, maybe “My Life and the ’60s”
I took off from home about noon yesterday, on my way north on Hwy One to Pt. Arena to hang out with with my pal Louie in Pt. Arena and environs.
I’m in midst of publishing 64-pg. book, “Driftwood Shacks,” and about halfway up the coast, spotted a nicely symmetrical tipi-shaped beach shack from a cliff. Whoa! Totally timely. I climbed down the cliff and discovered a strung-out village of maybe 15 beach shacks over a mile and a half, perfect day after rains, good surf, jogging along beach, gulls, turkey buzzards soaring, beach vibes rich in chi.
I think my book just grew another dozen pages. Will be out before year’s end. Digital printing by Ingram’s Lightning Source. Color, 8 by 8”, probably $20. This is a shot of my computer screen this morning.
In 2003, after the Frankfurt Book Fair, I took a RyanAir cheapo flight from Frankfurt to Pescara on the Adriatic coast of Italy. From there I took a train south, then a ferry to Isole Tremiti, an archipelago of islands. I came back to the mainland and drove along the coast and spotted this shack, called a trabucco. Said to have been invented by the Phoenicians, trabucci allowed fishermen to cast nets without being tossed around in boats in rough weather. (Just ran across this in going through old photos.)
This was in the Mallaig Heritage Center, a charming small museum in Mallaig, on the west coast of Scotland.
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