Second Hand
As part of Burning Man preparations, we have been scouring thrift stores, Craigslist and the curbs of San Francisco for furniture and other, assorted crazy shit to take with to the desert. There's a great place called Urban Ore (think kierrätyskeskus) in Emeryville which has some really cool stuff, like toilets! And sinks! And giant pigeons!
I come in peace.
Clowns, man. Not the scariest type of clown, but, still.
The hills are alive with the sound of creepy.
Old school.
Prison Break
Alcatraz! Yeah yeah, had to go there. Not as impressive as one would think (there's nothing that can't be banalized by throngs of tourists) but it does have a certain unnerving atmosphere. You can step into "the hole", or isolation cell, and that looked like tons of fun -- claustrophobic, and, for extra measure, completely dark. People often hallucinated in there, and those cells really made me want to get the hell out of them as fast as I could. Bad Feng Shui.
Insert bar joke here.
Welcome to The Rock. (With Sean Connery acshent.)
American prison complex, or Soviet nuclear power plant? You decide.
In 1969, Indians (think Mohawk) occupied the then abandoned island wanting a cultural center there. They got hippies instead.
Oh, fog.
Creepy is as creepy does.
The shower is where you first walk in...to pick up the audio tour.
Just passin' thru.
Pekka and Heli digging the award-winning audio tour.
Five minutes before lockdown, I mean, before the place closed and we had to leave.
Creepy by day, creepier by night.
As silly and walk-through as it seems today, what with the touristy crap and the constant references to the place as The Rock, it must have been an absolute hellhole. The prisoners could hear people celebrating New Year's, women's laughter if the wind was right, and they could peek over the wall to see San Francisco, and life, out there, a mile away. Just imagine.
Fog = Death
Remember John Carpenter's The Fog? You should! (Here's a reminder.) Anyway, they shot that piece of classic horror up in Point Reyes -- among other places -- which is really beautiful, an hour and a half or so outside of S.F. They get lots of fog (surprise!) but sometimes it clears up, like this time.
That's the lighthouse...Of Death!
Gauging your heartrate...Which Is Zero!
A shiny plaque. Shiny because they washed it...Of Blood!
A detail of the light...Or A Death Trap! Photo by Sampo.
So, the French built the crystal that they used for the, er, lamp, and to this day nobody knows how exactly they did it. I'm guessing that in France everybody knows, that they teach this merde in school or something. "But let's not tell les Américains, oui? Drive zem fou!"