Feedback at Green Festival

The feedback at these events is really gratifying. Shelter really changed a lot of peopl'e's lives. A guy stopped by a little while ago and said that he ran across a copy of HomeWork in a remote area in Brazil.
A 40s-year-old guy just now came to the booth, pointed to Shelter, and said, "I was reading this when I was a kid and it sparked a bunch of things in my later life."
"How old were you?"
He thought for a minute, then said, "About 5."

Amy Goodman from Democracy Now at GreenFestival

Amy is a dynamic and compelling speaker and everyone in the large crowd was with her today as she talked about the need for non-mainstream reporting.

New Nissan electric car

Was generating a lot of interest at Green Festival. 100 miles on a charge. Top speed 90mph. 100% electric.

Green Festival November San Francisco

We're selling a lot of copies of Builders of the Pacific Coast, and The Barefoot Architect. Last night, after some rock n roll at Bottom of the Hill, I went to Sam Wo restaurant about 2 AM. I've been going there for about 50 years. You walk in through the kitchen, climb narrow stairs, and surly waitresses take your order and haul it up on a dumb waiter. The place was famed in the '60s for the ultra-rude waiter Edsel Ford, who would yell at you: "No egg foo yung, no sweet sour, no chow mein! What you want? Hurry up!" Edsel's gone now, but his spirit remains. I had a bowl of wonton soup, delicious. They are open until 3AM. Lot of international travelers there late at night.
My talk on the half-acre homestead went well yesterday. It was fun, everyone was with me. Raining this morning, I'm at Ritual Roasters, v. cool barista/wi-fi cafe on Valencia St. Doing talk today on Builders of the Pacific Coast at Green Fest.

Aztec graffiti in Mission district

Day before yesterday on 24th Street:

A lot of Mission district street art seems to have an Aztec/Miztec/Olmec overtones.

Country boy/City boy

This flurry of posts is because I'm in the Big City for 4 days for the Green Festival.
Ocean beach yesterday, surfers" paradise, shadows in the sea mist...
An Irish coffee last night at the Buena Vista, Ghirardelli sign with its handsome typography...
Cafe Roma in North Beach at daybreak today…

Lloyd House's carpentry in Builders of the Pacific Coast

Lew just put together this Yudu mini-book, using a bunch of pages from Builders of the Pacific Coast, of Lloyd House's work. I love these tiny books. These pages look great miniaturized. Maybe we'll do the entire book this way. Micro electronic edition free. Would it help sell books?
http://www.shelterpub.com/_builders/BPC-house.html

Reborn running

Skateboarding isn't dangerous. Running is! Running has put me in the hospital twice, and bestowed upon me dozens of injuries over the years. As my knee slowly and surely heals, I've been rethinking my future running career. Hey, I want to run another 30 years.
Thanks largely to a pretty wonderful book, Born to Run. It's got me into the idea of "chi running." Running lightly with minimal foot cushion, feeling the ground. I'm gonna give up running (as) fast (as possible) in favor of running along the trails with more sensitivity, lightly.
Tuesday night was my first run since the operation a month ago. I wore these Sanuk shoes. They're pretty close to being barefoot, just a bit of cushion, they're made by surfers. I ran about 4 miles on coastal trails, with a bit of Ron Rahmer-type bushwhacking. It felt good to feel the trail with my feet.

At the beach big surf day #1

Check out waves in background (at a usually wimpy-wave beach).

Live the life you love and…

Nice geodesic dome makeover

Spotted on recent coastal run. This is a really nice job of spiffing up a wooden dome. Put together with hex-head sheet metal screws with rubber washers. I especially like the mini-overhang of win dows.

Day at the - wham! - beach

Surf has been huge. Triple overhead at Kelly's cove in SF yesterday, no one could get out. I went down to the beach this morning, very high tide. Three of my neighbors were down there, including fisherman Josh, and we watched the water pouring into the lagoon like mad, waves pounding out in the channel. Josh reminisced about when Jerry Dunn flipped his boat going out. "He tried to turn around and the wave tore the cabin off…"
Tide was high, tricky to get to the high sand area of the beach, so I made a dash for it. Ulp! Miscalculation. Waves washing in, getting higher and higher, up to my knees, and also logs and lots of flotsam bouncing around. Small log whacked my ankle. Please, Madame Ocean, I prayed, don't slam me against that wall in front of these people. Luckily I made it through, my sweatpants soaked up to the crotch.
I wandered around on what little sand there was. All kinds of driftwood, ocean actively ripping up piers right now. Surfers getting the occasional good ride, abut mostly hammered.
Couldn't go back the way I came, so I walked to the other end of the beach. There's a seawall you have to run by to get to the opening shown above. Made it!

I like Java, I like tea, I like the java jive and it likes me…

I went down to the beach early this morning. Sign at coffee stand…

Tiny house

Shot last night on my first real run in months. Somewhere along the NorCal coast…

Hum babe

My folks had season tickets when the Giants moved west in the '70s (along with Willie Mays) but they never got to see a world series. I watch very little sports, but this week was an exception. I mean, it's my home town, they've got a long-haired dope-smoking pitcher, a shortstop who looks overweight, but moves with grace and bats with power, a baby-faced (23 y.o.) rookie catcher who catches flawlessly, has a rifle arm, and hits homers. Boy!
There are moments of grace and beauty in baseball, but normally I don't have the patience to sit through the slow tempo of the game + the motherf-----g commercials. So I was thrilled to see these very decent young guys pull it off this week. And their elegant athletic catches, tosses, and quick thinking…
"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks,
I don't care if I never get back…"
Image from: http://is.gd/gCZev

4th richest man in world builds billion $$ home

And at the other end of the spectrum from our tiny houses theme, this report from the (London) Daily Telegraph:
"Mukesh Ambani, his wife and 3 children have moved into the (27-story) building (in South Mumbai, India), which is named Antilia, after a mythical Island. It contains a health club with a gym and dance studio, at least one studio, a ballroom, guestrooms and a range of lounges and a 50 seater cinema.
There is even an elevated garden with ceiling space to accommodate small trees.
The roof has 3 helicopter pads and there is also underground parking for 160 cars, which will come in handy for guests at Ambani's forthcoming housewarming party.…
The 53 year-old tycoon is…the fourth richest man in the world. In total there is reported to be 37,000 square metres of space, which is more than the Palace of Versailles.
To keep it running smoothly requires 600 staff.…"
http://is.gd/gCVzM

I'm talking Saturday & Sunday at Green Festival in San Francisco

This Saturday, 11/6, I'm giving a short talk (with slides) in San Francisco titled "The Half-Acre Homestead in the 21st Century." It's from 2:00 PM to 2:45 PM. I went around and shot a bunch of photos around home and garden (below is living room). The idea is to show people what I've learned in 50 years of building, gardening, maintenance, and useful tools.

On Sunday, from 1PM to 1:45 PM, I'm doing a presentation titled: "Creative Carpentry: Builders of the Pacific Coast," which chronicles my 2 years shooting photos and interviewing carpenters in the Pacific Northwest.

The SF Green Festival is this weekend, Nov. 6-7, at the SF Concourse Exhibition Center (a cool building), 635 8th St (at Brannan), San Francisco, CA 94103. It's usually jam packed, a good-vibes event. We'll have a booth and be selling books.
http://www.greenfestivals.org/sf/updates/