awsome contest

Group Anthro Project

This is the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco. It is where mostly gay and lesbian people lives, congregate and meet each other. It has become a landmark where LGBT folks are proud of their achievement in making their voices heard in the city, state and national politics. If we ever want to make a difference in our local community, in our city, our state or national politics we can learn from this group of people. One major example is Harvey Milk who gathered his fellow gay men and women to start in their own political campaign to have a voice for themselves in San Francisco's political arena.

Nerds in the kitchen

This is what happens when you put nerds in a kitchen: just about nothing. Notice how the guys aren't paying any attention to the rest of the kitchen. There is one more woman in here, and she is helping me cook. Granted, I wouldn't trust some of these dudes with a knife or boiling water anyhow, so I suppose this is a good thing.

Wad Sculpture

On closer inspection, we found that it did not look like gum, but was instead rather phallic. The exact phrasing we chose was along the lines of "penis-wad sculpture." We liked it far better this way. :)

We sat on it for a very long time... make of that what you will.

Sculpture

Here is a sculpture along the lake shore. My friend from Texas saw it from a distance, and wondered why someone would make a sculpture resembling a regurgitated piece of chewing gum. Californians just walk by stuff like this and hardly give it any thought. It does look a bit like gum, from a distance.

My room

This here is my room, taken with the flash off. Kinda makes it look like I live in Hell. The dog doesn't seem to notice in the slightest. Notice how only my computer screen is illuminated. Kinda makes you wonder: if I apparently live in Hell, is cyberspace heaven?

Sweet Primus, I hope not...

Hell

On the topic of Hell, I found this carved into a tree branch down along Lake Merrit. I suppose someone was having a really crappy day, and took it out on a dead tree. There had to be about ten other carvings on this particular tree, too. Not uncommon at all, in Oakland.

The #1

This is one major stop for the #1 AC Transit Bus. It was a block away from the other bus stop that I had posted. It is also a place where some homeless people just sit down and relax. This is where the regular #1 AC Bus stop at and the other bus stop (IR or Rapid Bus) was an express stop and will go and travel exactly at the same route. This sort of reminds me about our path (spiritually speaking) of life: you can either choose (whichever you are inclined with) to take the fast route or the slow route, either way you'll end up where you want to go or where you want to be.

Harvy Muni

This image is seen at Harvey Milk Plaza on Muni Castro Street Station right after you'll get out of the car train. It had pictures of Harvey Milk when he was youngster, a regular ordinary individual, and also his succesful entry into politics. I admired his courage in facing the challenges that was put forth in front him. He fought for man and women who seemed to not have any voice at all during his career as the first openly gay official in San Francisco. This is will power and showmanship of courage and bravery. Milk had stand up for himself and those that supported him during his tenure as a politician in San Francisco.

My Neighborhood

These pictures are taken in my neighborhood. It is slowly turning to become a Korea town. It is mainly located in a busy telegraph avenue. Next major block is Broadway. The main thing I had seen and observe is that Broadway area are constantly building residences and it had become gentrified while the ailing telegraph avenue constantly struggle with poverty and homelessness.

Bus Stop

This is a bus stop where I usually wait for the bus. I took this picture of this location because I am not happy about it. It is where mostly drunk people group together including the homeless and the area just smell so bad because they used this is a "Pee" terminal. Again, homelessness is still one issue that Oakland and some other major cities are trying to address.

Dore Alley

This picture is taken at Dore Alley Fair. I would think it is the sister festival celebration of the Folsom Fair which has a larger following and have more attendance. I do not particularly like this alternative gay lifestyle but who am I to judge. It had now became a new culture that many people participated in.

Harvy Milk Plaza

This is the Harvey Milk Plaza in the heart of Castro District in San Francisco. It is a place where gay and lesbian can be themselves and not worry about their sexual identity. Harvey Milk was the very first gay politician in San Francisco and the city named that plaza after him.

One of the many, many feathered denizens of Lake Merrit. The geese
and the people interact so often, this one hardly cares that I'm
there taking pictures of him. There are so many of these guys, they
considered killing some to bring the populations down. This idea was
shot dead in the streets (pun totally intended) and the geese
continue to breed unabated.

An evening view of Lake Merrit. This place is always full of people,
no matter what time of day. The joggers, especially, are always out
in force, as if afraid that if they stop running, the American
fatness is gonna jump them from the bushes.

Bay

We live in the "bay area" yet I almost never actually go to the water to enjoy the wind, the tide, and the reflection of the sun on the water. I've traveled the world and claimed to be from the "bay" yet I'm never at that very bay I claim.

Duality on the Bart

This is on a Bart train. I'm glad it's the only color photo in my collection. This picture illustrates the vast visible differences between the young and the old, the working and the student, light and dark. More telling is that they are not talking, we are always taught not to talk to strangers, but a "stranger" is only someone we don't understand, someone who isn't like "us" who ever that may be. Though I envy the young man, he is in the darkness on probably more than one level listening to his iPod. I aspire to be as hardy as the old man who is able to be an active member of society even if that just means suiting up and showing up to take out the trash.

Snapshot in Time

This is a caricature of Albany. The Prius is the best part. "Minimizing their ecological footprint" or so they think. If you are always doing inner city driving, you are only using gas so you are emitting just as many emissions as every other car on the street, not to mention how much pollution is created in making the car. Yet, in the one square mile town that is Albany, there are more Priuses per capita than in the rest of the country. By all appearances "we" are liberal and open minded, when in actuality "we" are pretentious bigots.

Home is Where the Heart is

Camping out in a parking lot. This has been my life at several different venture points. I could have taken this exact same picture sitting outside of "Gilman" on a Friday or Saturday night, or waiting for a bus or a train in Israel. All I need to go anywhere amidst the concrete jungle is a backpack and a sleeping bag. That backpack is a tiny portable apartment and the sleeping bag is the always present, movable bed. Home isn't a specific place anymore, it is where I decide to stop, breath and debrief.

Fire Pit

My favorite feeling in the whole wide world is being warmed by a fire talking with good friends. Although this is an actual fire, when I'm with good friends, I feel that warmth and intimacy of being around a camp fire in the middle of nowhere. This seems to be a romanticized all-American pastime - sitting around a campfire with family and friends making smores, singing songs, and gazing at stars. This is not actual family, and not all of these people are actual friends, I've created that same cultural experience.

Family Meeting

"We share a common bond." This is a quote from a text that binds these people and I together though that book represents only the solution while what really binds us is the shared disease. We come together and know each other because of our shared illness. Most of us have nothing in common besides an affinity that we are not alone in our struggles. These are the people I've shared my life with and by grace will continue to share until the end of it. By walking in and being a member of this group, I'm fully exposed and yet I feel safest here in a meeting.

Levels of Transit

Taken from a window on Bart. What sticks out at me is the barbed wire that's keeping people inside the Bart station and the levels of highway. I know its meant to keep people safe, but its apropos in that if you look at the different levels of highway with Bart being on the bottom, its like the different levels of our economy. The upper class and middle class can easily move around while the lower classes are caged behind barbed wire - they can move only on a track back and forth.

Viva La Vulva

This is at the Dyke March. Every year these guys put up this sign to show their support. I know because I've seen it up several years. It captures the playfulness in the gay community that blossoms fully at pride. You can't walk past it without giggling. Its not about "being in your face" gay anymore. Its much more about self-acceptance and being comfortable in your own skin. That gay men are asserting seize the vagina is a positive statement of support and inclusion of not only gay women, but also of straight men.

Stop Light

At first glance, it looks like some sort of protest or vandalism. In actuality, its his enthusiasm and interest in the event that he wanted to get a great view of the dykes on bikes as they drove by on their motorcycles. By saying nothing, just the fact that he is up on that light is a statement of his enthusiastic support. Sometimes our presence and attention is more of an effective statement than lots of posters, signs, words or shouting. Only in San Francisco would he not be pulled down.

Bus

This is in the back of an AC Transit bus. The guy in the photo almost looks like he's meditating which is a statement of two things: 1. I love using public transportation to meditate and I've learned how to sleep while riding. Its my alone time. 2. We're so separated from each other that we feel alone even when piled in with many people traveling the same route.

I'm usually very much stuck in between the two: wanting to connect and wanting to have my own downtime alone.

About this Blog

This is where we'll explain what our group project is and what you will see posted on this blog. You can email postings to justenjoying.culturalanthro@blogger.com

I'll be putting up my pictures with text.