3rd Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle-Oakland CA

The 3rd Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle was held this weekend on Saturday Oct. 10th in West Oakland's DeFremery Park. Kicking off at 11am the Battle was a daylong event featuring the aerosol art of a variety of graffiti artists. The weathered cooperated and the event brought a lot of people out to support community building efforts.

The smell of spray paint, marijuana and BBQ mingled in the air with the “oohhhss” and “ahhhss” from the break dance circle. A live DJ, live bands and the sound of rolling skateboards wheels could also be heard depending on what park of the park you were in.

The lawn of DeFremery was littered with 10ft high canvases tethered to multi-sided bamboo structures busied by artists creating their murals. Along with the graffiti battle was a full on break dancing battle that occupied the majority of the crowd as everyone crowded around a slab of linoleum to get a peek at the talented dancers spinning on their heads and hands. Not far away were tons of skateboarders strutting their moves on the ramps, half-pipes and rails in the skate park. If that wasn't enough for you there was plenty of food to be eaten, information of all sorts, and dancing to be done.

Check it out on SF Weekly

Spinning in the circle.

Areosol Art high and low.

Don't try this at home.

Some really good air.

Riding the rail.

A tagger at work.

Some more tagging.

Some more sweet moves.

Some very intricate art.

This guy had some great moves.

A low shot.

Some half pipe action.

Some serious crowd pressure.

Hiking Yosemite and the vicinity

Caption-Looking East from Lower Conness Lake

Three days, three hikes in Yosemite and surrounding area. An afternoon in the Yosemite Valley and then over to the eastern side of the park to the Saddlebag Lake/20 Lakes Basin Area. From there to plains around Mono Lake and then back into Yosemite to hike into Cathedral Lake. Here's a couple pics to show the dramatic quality of the not only the geographical aspects of the park, but also the weather moving around @ 10,000+ feet. Enjoy.

A road near Bodie, CA

A stark Sierra contrast
One of the Conness glacial lakes


Stone Striations
Mountain reflection


(wo)man and nature

Mountains and sky over Tenaya Lake.


Water Truck


Yosemite Valley

Half Dome

Nevada Falls and surrounding monoliths





A biker in Yosemite Valley
El Captain (notice picnic table in left foreground as scale)

Adventures in Urban Exploration: Drawbridge CA-The Bay's Last Ghost town

My friend Justin and i set out to explore an old abandon town in the south bay. The sun was beating down on us when we arrived in Alviso at close to 2pm. Parking next to the rail tracks we set out due north following the tracks into a horizon of salt flats and diked sloughs. About a half mile along the tracks we found a dead dog laying in the middle of the tracks with bullet holes in it. Not really sure what to think we continued, left and right of us were foul smelling sloughs, dried fields of packed mud and train debris. After several miles, several trains flying past we crossed a rail bridge onto Station Island and started to explore the abandon the buildings of Drawbridge CA.

Below is a historical description of the town courtesy of www.ghosttown.info-

"Drawbridge is an abandoned town on the outskirts of San Jose and is slowly sinking into the sloughs of San Francisco Bay. It was created on Station Island in 1876 and consisted of a single dwelling to house the operator of two drawbridges owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad that crossed the Mud Creek Slough and Coyote Creek Slough to connect Newark with Alviso and San Jose. It eventually grew into a small town consisting mainly of hunting cabins, hotels, and gun clubs (the San Francisco Bay, before salt evaporation ponds and sewage dumping, was a hunting and fishing paradise). During Prohibition, taking advantage of its location in no man's land between Santa Clara and Alameda counties, it housed numerous speakeasies and brothels. In addition, the police were reluctant to enter as nearly everyone in Drawbridge was armed.
Starting in the late 1920's, the surrounding communities began to pump fresh water out from the sloughs causing the land to sink. Two salt evaporation ponds around Drawbridge prevented the tides from cleaning the waters and the pumping in of raw sewage fouled what remained.
At its peak in 1926, Drawbridge had 90 private residences and two hotels. The train stopped five times daily. In 1979, the last remaining resident left, leaving behind a dozen or so wooden shacks."