California Literature, think foremost:  John Steinbeck.  

Think:  Steinbeck.  Monterey.   Salinas.  Jolon.  Eden.

Coast Road?

Pair these two California icons and try to find a relationship:  Does John Steinbeck appear along Highway 1?  Does Highway 1 appear in John Steinbeck’s novels?

Harold Mallette Dean
1907-1976

Born in Spokane, Washington, Harold Mallette Dean moved to San Francisco in 1927 and enrolled in the California School of Fine Arts where he was influenced by Ray Boynton. He was one of the most prolific painters of government-sponsored murals in Northern California. Dean was among the 26 artists selected by the Public Works of Art Project to create the famed Coit Tower murals and one bas relief. Before retiring in San Rafael, California, he taught printmaking at Marin Junior College, and at his alma mater, the California School of Fine Arts.

Can you dig this condor + wave poster from the Pacific Coast?  Beautiful!  Love the palette.

Hipnic at the Library

The sun looked just like that this weekend.  Hot.  I’d post more but I’ve been winding down a Steinbeck study on the Coast Road.  More details next post.

Hot dog Buns

First day of Summer arrives bittersweet, for it marks the beginning of dwindling hours of daylight, until the solstice reaches its low, its demise, if you will, the blackout which signifies winter’s begin.

First day of Winter, hopeful.  Days getting longer.  First Day of Summer, full of regret over time wasted.

“After 30 years he’s finally listened to us old timers who have been stewards of the land.”

The land itself and the native animals.  Not the horses and the land.  Not the houses, shops and streets of the land, but the very insects which inhabit the land.

You only see flies.  Houseflies.  Occasionally, a butterfly.  An orange and black Monarch.

We have way more than that.  We have miniature, micro-micro, green irridescent little bugs with wings.  They mystify and I am bewitched upon their landing on my arm, or knee.  I watch them, do not brush them away, like I would a common housefly.  I watch them and consider a relationship with them.  They’re as supposed to be here, as am I.

But it’s Summer now.  We’ve rolled past the line.  From now on, treasure every moment you got.  Got with the sunshine.  Got with the hills.  Got with the hawks, quail, and the silly little airplanes from over the hill.  The flight path runs overhead, out in this paradise.  Those sunny calm days that you also love so much, are interrupted by the little airplanes, buzzing overhead.

During these interrupts.  These blights on the landscape, you will make lists of things to complete while in society.  In – Out.  That’s the objective.  Upon that list, you write, “Hot dog Buns.”

It’s Summer.  The bbq should be fired each night.  Out on the coast.  Onshore breeze, warmed by 3 ridges and 2 canyons.  Scents of tall golden grasses, chaparral, sage and creeks.  Reaches you salty.

The erecting of this bridge in today’s dollars would certainly not find its total in the range of $200,000.00.

May 27th is the Anniversary Date for our beloved Golden Gate Bridge.  May 28th, 1937 was the first day for automobile traffic to drive across.  Never, well, perhaps the Brooklyn Bridge, has a bridge so captured the hearts of a population. The Bridge is often a photography model, imprinted on endless amounts of tourist products, and it provides a launching pad into the next life.

The Golden Gate rivermouth span is the inspiration for San Francisco State University’s mascot, The Golden Gaters. Later changed to, The Gators, as in, alligators. (Note: There are no alligators in northern California.)

All text following has been copied off other, noted, sites:

from Wikipedia:

The bridge-opening celebration began on 27 May 1937 and lasted for one week. The day before vehicle traffic was allowed, 200,000 people crossed by foot and roller skate. On opening day, Mayor Angelo Rossi and other officials rode the ferry to Marin, then crossed the bridge in a motorcade past three ceremonial “barriers,” the last a blockade of beauty queens who required Joseph Strauss to present the bridge to the Highway District before allowing him to pass. An official song, “There’s a Silver Moon on the Golden Gate,” was chosen to commemorate the event. Strauss wrote a poem that is now on the Golden Gate Bridge entitled “The Mighty Task is Done.” The next day, President Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington, DC signaling the official start of vehicle traffic over the Bridge at noon. When the celebration got out of hand, the SFPD had a small riot in the uptown Polk Gulch area. Weeks of civil and cultural activities called “the Fiesta” followed. A statue of Strauss was moved in 1955 to a site near the bridge.

from GoldenGateBridge.org

WHY THE NAME GOLDEN GATE?
The Golden Gate Strait is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean.  The strait is approximately three-miles long by one-mile wide with currents ranging from 4.5 to 7.5 knots.  It is generally accepted that the strait was named “Chrysopylae”, or Golden Gate, by John C. Fremont, Captain, topographical Engineers of the U.S. Army circa 1846.  It reminded him of a harbor in Instanbul named Chrysoceras or Golden Horn.

from History of San Francisco State University:

1931 – Men’s sports, particularly football, become more popular at SF State. After SF State’s student newspaper, the “Bay Leaf,” calls for the school to adopt a mascot, a reader proposes the alligator — because “it is strong and we hope our teams have strength. It is well-built and is steadfast, steadily moving toward its goal.” The reader also proposes spelling the Golden Gaters with an “e” to typify our San Franciscan location to strangers. Students vote to adopt it. That August, however, the Bay Leaf begins inconsistently misspelling the name as “‘Gator,” and after the paper eventually changes its own name to the “Golden Gater,” the name and spelling sticks.