Good Morning Kossacks and Welcome to Morning Open Thread (MOT)
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Good day to all and where has the wandering Stream O' Consciousness Man brought us today?
(spins globe, pokes finger)
Aaaaaaannnnddd ittsss Berkeley!!!
Yes, the college town where you never need to name the state or country: Berkeley, Planet Earth. AKA Mutant Capital of The Known Universe and So'C Man is a native. Yep, SoC Man hails from here, having been born in the very room in Alta Bates hospital that is now the alcoholic Rehab meeting room. Thats history, folks!
Tho So'C Man now lives far away, he still has relatives here so must needs come visit them occasionally. So'C Man grew up around here so is well versed on the relevant Berkeley Locations: People's Park, Telegraph Avenue, Sproul Plaza: the most tear gassed place in America, Sather gate, the place where the police car carrying Mario Savio was overturned, the place where Dan Siegel said "Lets Take the PARK!!" (and we did)(and its still there)----So'C man knows them all, tho much has changed since The Day.
but the place So'C Man likes the most in Berkeley on a nice day is The Berkeley Pier. Don't miss this on a tour of the SF Bay Area, this is the dock that Otis Redding was singing about in Dock of the Bay.
Stand out on the end of the pier and look around: from SF across the Golden Gate to Marin and Mt Tamalpais, across the Richmond Bridge, The East Bay, Berkeley, Oakland. This is probably the best 360 degree view in the BAy Area. Some people have told me its also the best place to smoke a doob in Berserkely. There's just no end to human wickedness.
The day was sunny, the sky was blue.
This statue sits down in the Berkeley Marina, down at the base of the pier. It just appeared here one day (its 12' high and several tons,) the artist and donor is anonymous. That was fine but its designed so that when it rains the horse (?) pees. Evidently there was controversy about this (like EVERYTHING in Berkeley) I guess you could call this a multi media statue
'Kay, now we're down at the end of the pier. It only goes about a mile and a quarter now but once it went out almost 3 miles to a ferry dock.. Some of the remnants of the dock are still there as you can see, you're looking out the fence at the end of the dock at SF on the left, the Golden Gate Bridge on the right.
Turning to the right we see Mt Tamalpais and fabled Marin County, Mellow and Hip Capital of the Known Universe. feel the warm and groovy vibes coming out of there? The Grateful Dead wouond up living here, among many other groovy people.
Skipping over Richmond for reasons Bay Area residents know well, we look back up the pier at Berkeley. look closely at the back, right, at the base of the hill and you see a white tower. Thats the Campanile at the Univ of CA Berkeley
Turning to the right we see Oakland, scene of so much unpleantness lately. Oakland always looks so nice at a distance.
I love California, so many, many interesting places to see.
Morning Open Thread will begin in 5....4....3....2....1....NOW!