Tag Archives: photos

Bay Area, Culture, San Francisco, Feminism, All

San Francisco Pride 2014 Photos

June 30, 2014 Karma

Photos from San Francisco Pride, Sunday. We started out at the Indie Oasis stage, because some of our favorite San Francisco DJs were working that stage: A Plus D of Bootie and the couple who DJ’s Fringe in the Haight. Unfortunately, they were blowing out the speakers in order to compete with the nonstop spectacle in every direction, so every song sounded terrible. After hanging out there for way too long, we found another stage that was thoroughly delightful. We danced through to the last song.

I like candid shots, so most of these aren’t posed. I also like to take photos of some of the people who aren’t getting as much attention as seven-foot drag queens in mirrorball leisure suits, etc. Which is to say, this collection of photos in no way captures the bounty of glitter, feathers, and gender-fucked awesome sauce that is the San Francisco Pride. Nor can my camera capture the perfect summer sunshine and cool Bay breezes or the camaraderie strangers found dancing together. It’s just a sample of the few of the things I enjoyed in our one little corner of the SF Pride festival.

Were you looking for more substantive social analysis of queerness in our times? Check out last year’s article on why I prefer the word “queer.”

Click on any photo to engage the slideshow and read the captions.

Bay Area, San Francisco

Year of the Horse

March 11, 2014 Karma

Happy Neigh Year!

OK, I stole that pun off the Internetz. I also heard from that same dubious source that the year of the fire horse in ancient China families would kill their baby girls, because a fire horse woman would be too powerful. Even as late as the 1960s the abortion rate went up in the year of the fire horse. But this is the year of the wooden horse, so all your babies are safe I suppose.

I happened to be in Nobb Hill during the final day of the Chinese New Year Parade. I made sure to head down hill to Chinatown to catch San Franciscans ringing in the year of the horse. Firecrackers for everyone! Continue reading Year of the Horse →

Bay Area, Culture, Humor, San Francisco, Bicycles

Crazy San Francisco: Adults Race Big Wheels Trikes Down the Curviest Street in America

April 10, 2012 Karma

Lombard Street in San Francisco is known as the “curviest in America,” but city residents know that’s a big lie. Vermont Street in Potrero Hill is the curviest street in San Francisco, and therefore in the US. Good thing too, because if it were in some other city they probably wouldn’t spend every Easter dressing up in costumes and racing down dangerous curves on the tiny Big Wheels tricycles designed for Kindergarteners.

Continue reading Crazy San Francisco: Adults Race Big Wheels Trikes Down the Curviest Street in America →

Bay Area, Culture, San Francisco

Bay to Breakers II: This is How We Run A Footrace in San Francisco

May 31, 2011 Karma

If you like to see sweaty people wearing costumes and running shoes, boy are you in luck: here’s my second batch of photos from San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers race. There’s even more photos in this batch.

Here we have Towely, Elvis, Carmen Sandiego, Tellytubbies, Ghostbusters, (more) Marios (and carts, actually saw a much better set of Mario Carts but didn’t get a picture), three Divo heads (the fourth was crossing the street), bathroom boy and girl,a boyscout, Jesus Christ and his two wenches, and a magic lamp that wins any contest for “most phallic costume.” And some other stuff…you can look at the pictures faster than I can list them.

Which ones are running to raise money for charity and which ones are just looking for an excuse to get very drunk early on a Sunday morning? I’ll leave that to you.

Continue reading →

San Francisco

Bay to Breakers: This is How We Run A Footrace in San Francisco

May 29, 2011 Karma

Every city has their big charity race; in San Francisco it’s Bay to Breakers. Folks run from the beautiful Bay, through the city and all the way through Golden Gate Park. Unlike most cities, San Franciscans like to do it in costumes. And unlike other cities that get dressed up, these gold rush kids take their costumes seriously.

My first experience with Bay to Breakers was being handed a paper cup while running, the typical side-of-the-road refresher offered to runners, only to find out the cup was filled with beer. This year I decided to be lazy and wait at the finish line to get photos of some of the fantastic outfits. Nostalgia was in full force this year, with more Mario and Luigis than you can squeeze into a hidden green pipe and so many red-striped Waldos that the irony of finding so many of them was completely lost. There were also a ton of Smurfs, muppets and Angry Birds.