#BayAreaLife

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Here's some stuff I made and some places I visited!  To enhance your blog-reading experience, see if you can find all three outdoor amphitheaters mentioned in this post.*

I painted some shoes, as one does when one has plain white Tom's in need of painting.  It only took me a year to get around to painting these after I bought them, but it was pretty fun!  Only now I don't want to wear them because I like them too much.  Oh well.

Love me some space ships

*space noises*

I went to Oakland!  It was a pretty cool place.  All the hipsters are there.  Also a large church that's pretty sweet, some flowers, more hipsters, hipster beer, and cool people.

Cathedral of Christ the Light

Hipster Jesus.  He's a metaphor ("Christ the Light.")  Actually he's a pattern cut into perforated aluminum.  Which is so hot these days.

Gratuitous architectural detail shot

Flowers.  Aka, "The Morcom Rose Garden - Amphitheater of Roses."  I am into outdoor amphitheaters these days.  For research.

I went to Stern Grove - twice!  Once because it was nearby ("research"), and once because there was an actual concert.  I saw Randy Newman, and he seemed like a cool guy, playing piano outside with the hipsters.  If you haven't been to a free concert at Stern Grove, you should reconsider.

Empty

Full

Extra foresty.

I went to UC Berkeley!  It was... large-ish.  And kind of disorganized.  But neat!  Also bubble tea was had!  Also students were graduating, it was fun to see them wandering around with their parents in their robes.  Good work students!

Awkward building is awkward.

This building has an unnecessary and sort of insane concrete cantilever for a sign.

Architecture building yay

Mmm brutalism.

Congrats architecture students, you graduated!

Greek Theater!  No one was home.

Such scaffolding wow

I saw some new buildings at Stanford!  These were pretty sweet.  Go visit them.  The Windhover contemplative center is lovely.  The exterior is rammed earth, which is so hot these days.  The striped patterns, the light, the reflecting pool are all lovely.  Just go see it.  The McMurty Building for the Art & Art History Dept is what I wish Duke had built, but obviously they didn't because they don't actually care that much about the arts.  Instead they renovated Smith Warehouse, which is ok I guess.  Oh well.  Stanford, though, did build it, and it is very hip.

Much contemplative

Reflect

Very tree

Yay angles, yay DS+R

Such angles wow

In the "totally not worth it, don't bother visiting" category: Winchester Mystery House.  Seriously, do not go there.  I have been told by reliable sources that if you still feel the need to go, you can listen to this podcast, and it completely replaces the tour, so you do not have to go after all.  Here are some photos so you can feel like you went, and then, not go.

Ugh

Eww

Do not go.

So there you have it!  I did some fun things once.  I hope to do fun things again soon.  Please join me in doing fun things.  There are still more outdoor amphitheaters to explore, more buildings to wander around, and perhaps even more shoes to paint.  Who knows!

*Did you find them all?  Greek Theater - Berkeley; Stern Grove - SF; Amphitheater of Roses - Oakland.  My total outdoor-amphitheaters-visited count also includes Frost Amphitheater - Stanford, Shoreline Amphitheater - MV, Greek Theater - LA, some random one in Bristow, VA, another random one in Nashville, and maybe others I forget.  And the Theater of Epidauros.  Important research!