On the way to Berkeley and street shots...

Heading east on the Oakland Bay Bridge. Back in 2003, we were heading back to the city after having gone to the Jelly Belly Factory. The bridge was backed up! We were planning to meet up with my cousin (the same one) and she told me there was a suicidal jumper on the bridge. To make a long story short, we were on that fkg bridge for nearly four hours! We ended up meeting my cousin much later than expected and found out later that the suicidal jumper had been there from noon til 11 pm. He was eventually talked down by firefighters or the cops and taken to a mental health facility! All I remember was, OMFG, I hope our daughter (or us for that matter) don't need to use the bathroom!!!!!!!!!! Four hours!!!!! FUCKKKKK!!!!!!!

On the I-80 near Emeryville...home of Pixar!

I like taking pix in the car and randomly took this one.

Look closely.

Do you see it?

By a sheer stroke of luck, I happened to get a shot of the Berkeley Big People sculpture! It's featured on the Roadside America website and in the book, "Weird California" (thanks KD!). I was actually on the lookout for it but didn't find it under I looked back at my photos later that day. The photo below is kinda blurry because I cropped it from the one above.

"Berkeley Big People" by Scott Donahue is a 30 foot tall fiberglass sculpture which was installed in October 2008 near the pedestrian and bicycle bridge over I-80. The installation commemorates Berkeley's greatest protests.  From People's Park to disability rights to the tree-sitters' standoff at Memorial Stadium with angry arm flailing protestors. (What, no Naked Guy?)

Here are a few more photos of the sculpture from different angles (photos not mine):

You can see the Campanile (tower) and the "blank" picket signs...

Info below taken from the artist bio on a Berkeley website:

"Two monumental sculptures containing oversize fiberglass figures representing a range of the community and some of the cultural interests of the City of Berkeley are visible to motorists. On the city side there are oversize figures (12 feet) of a violin player, a scientist holding a DNA model, a thinker, two activists, the University of California Campanile. On the Marina side there are a bird watcher, kite flier, jogger, boater, a dog catching a Frisbee. In addition twenty-four small relief figures on the lower parts of each of the sculptures are visible to bicyclists and pedestrians who use the bridge."

(photo source: SF GATE, Liz Hafalia, The Chronicle)

Exiting off of University, we drove by the Temple Bar. That place, along with Spats was where we used to hang out with Thane during our Presidents' Weekend trips back in the mid 90's.

Lots of Indian stores here, like this sari place! Oops, I mean "palace"! I bought a sari once but have never worn it! I'm afraid the fabric will slide off while I'm walking!

Random cheese steak shop...

Stickers on the back of newspaper dispensers. I was mainly attracted by the image of Pikachu with a guitar!!!

Even after Jollibee's, we were yet again hungry for a light snack...

Jollibee and Red Ribbon Bakery, SoMa

[Update - Closed since late 2011]

As we were heading there we saw Red Ribbon Bakeshop and Jollibee (the Philippine version of KFC and McD's) and figured we'd hit those places up before we left for Berkeley. [note, the SF Yelp link shows that the Red Ribbon AND the Jollibeeis closed! What?]

Red Ribbon is connected to Jollibee. I'd never been to a Red Ribbon before actually, not even in San Diego. Even Plaza Bonita has Red Ribbon and Jollibee (as well as Chow King).

Of course, I took a photo with the Jollibee but it's not posted here. Why? Because I'm grabbing it's striped crotch and making a totally goofy face, totally embarassing TC but not Bert because he's used to my freaky antics. Heh.

I bought some sweet bread (ensaimada) for my cousin who were were planning to meet later that afternoon. Turns out that she was mega sick so we didn't visit her and ended up leaving half of the bread with Thane.

After I bought the ensaimada, we walked over to the Jollibee part. We only wanted something small. I thought about Dennis and his Jollibee post. Even when I'm on vacation, I still read my fave bloggers! So, Dennis's post came out the day before (Oct. 2) and I figured we'd try it out!

This was a sign in the restaurant. I don't like bangus (milk fish) because there are too many bones. I'm sure this Crispy version was boneless though. I still don't like it.

Here's the Ensaimada from Red Ribbon - sweet brioche topped with cheese, margarine and sugar. Lots of cheese as you can see.

Bert got the Chicken Joy 2 piece with 1 side and a soda ($5.79) and a halo halo ($3.95) for TC. I like the bee on the cup! We all shared the chicken but TC was more interested in her halo halo which had ube ice cream, macapuno, green jelly cubes, red beans, jackfruit strips, crushed ice and milk. We wanted something to tide us over before crossing the bridge.

Ooh, I love ube but I can get this anytime in San Diego.

The side were the fries which weren't that great. Kinda bland. The chicken was all right but not as good as KFC because the skin didn't have as many crunchies as KFC.

View of the Red Ribbon side from our table in Jollibee.

The day before, the Padres lost to the Giants. We won that Saturday but lost on Sunday. Boo. Damn you Tim Lincecum!

It was starting to warm up that morning and looking to be a very sunny day...Leaving the Mission parking garage on 5th which was near the Metreon.

Goodbye Jollibee! (TC took this shot from the back window)

Yerba Buena Gardens...someday we'll check it out!

Who else ate at Jollibee (not this location, duh):

Here's an old one, Kirk and his Missus went to the National City location back in Oct 2005!
However, he went back more recently to the new location at the Plaza Bonita foodcourt in August 2009
Mary from Foodies: A Southern California Food Blog went to the Mira Mesa location back in Sept 2010

I didn't think Jollibee's was all that great. I like my mom's fried chicken way better (and food blogger Michael's Killer Fried Chicken mix). If I had to choose a fast food version of fried chicken, I'd choose KFC. Don't really like Popeyes or Church's (too greasy). Jollibee's halo halo was pretty good but I didn't want to get too full since we planned to hit up several places for snacks...

"Ang Lipi ni Lapu Lapu" mural

On the corner of Bonifacio and Lapu Lapu Streets is an eight story building. Built in 1978 and formerly called the Dimasalang House (named after the the Caballeros de Dimasalang, a Filipino mason organization established in the 1920's), the building is now known as the San Lorenzo Ruiz Apartments which provides housing for low income seniors, many of whom are Filipino. It was funny but frustrating because we passed it up a few times while we were walking around taking photos of the street signs. I kept telling Bert, I know it's around here somewhere. It's a tall building. We felt so dumb! So as we turned the corner and looked up at the tallest building in this tiny area, we finally saw it...

Measuring 90' by 25', the mural's official title is "Ang Lipi ni Lapu Lapu" (The Descendants of Lapu Lapu). It was painted by Johanna Poethig, who is white but was born in the Philippines to missionary parents; she is also fluent in Tagalog! Commisioned by the Mural Resource Center of San Francisco in 1984, the mural was also painted with the help of Vic Clemente and Presco Tabios.

A bit of triva about Presco Tabios - He was a Filipino American Manilatown activist who was featured in a small role in Wayne Wang's landmark film, "Chan is Missing" (1982). Presco Tabios is in the scene where a young Asian American cabbie goes to a Manilatown senior center seeking information about a man who mysteriousl disappeared with all this money. The scene is very sweet and is a time capsule with all of the elderly Lolo's and Lola's dancing to Los Lobos' version of the romantic Mexican bolero, "Sabor a Mi".

Here's the top most portion of the mural. You can see the Philippine eagle; beneath it's right wing are the islands of the Philippines covering most of Apolinario Mabini's suit. The colors of the mural have faded with time but it was still awe inspiring to see this in person and to gaze up at all of this Philippine and Filipino American history depicted on a wall.

Detail of Manilamen "dancing the shrimp". Many of the images here were taken from archived photos, many of them featured in the groundbreaking book, "Filipinos - Forgotten Asian Americans, A Pictorial Essay" (1982) by Fred Cordova (Uncle Fred is the co-founder of the Filipino American National Historical Society, aka 'FANHS'). That book changed my life. I mentioned it during a post last year, "Sad News, Howard Zinn died today".

Back to "dancing the shrimp". This was a method used by Manilamen to remove the heads and shells of shrimp as they were prepared for sun drying. The Manilamen were descendants of those native Filipinos who were recruited as shipbuilders, sailors, and navigators, traversed the Pacific Ocean with Spaniards during the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. Many of them jumped ship to escape the brutality of the Spaniards, ending up in the port cities of Acapulco and Veracruz in Baja California. Some of these escaped Manilamen crossed the Gulf of Mexico and ended up in Louisiana where they have over ten generations of descendants of the Manilamen. Manila Village as seen on the sign was the first and oldest established Filipino settlement in the continental United States and blew down in a hurricane in 1915.

Featured below are Philippine national heroes and the namesakes of the streets, Dr. Jose Rizal (in suit), Melchora "Tandang Sora" Aquino (shown tending to a wounded revolutionary),  Apolinario Mabini, and lastly Andres Bonifacio (with right up upraised). Below is author and labor activist, Carlos Bulosan ("America is in the Heart", 1946), a bride (maybe a post WWII war bride?), 1930's boxer Francisco Guilleda (aka "Pancho Villa"), San Francisco native, Vicky Manolo Draves who won 2 Olympic gold medals in diving at the 1948 London games. There is a nearby park named after her that we did not have enough time to check out. Below Draves are several professionals and the man with the flat top and glasses is Larry Itliong, leader of the Filipino Farm Workers, the AWOC, which later merged with Cesar Chavez's NFW to become the United Farm Workers (UFW) in 1965..

You can see the Filipino farmer in the conical hat, along with a Navy man, and a college graduate. Near the tree, an Alaskero, a farm worker, and a nuclear family (photo taken from the front cover of the Cordova book).

An interesting story about that photo (the original photo also includes about a half dozen men also sitting on those steps) which was taken by Frank Mancao, a manong from Stockton. The "little girl" in the photo, was the daughter of Frank and she was in her 80's when I met her at the 2002 FANHS National Conference in LA. She gleefully told me, "That's me on the book cover!". Sadly, I found out later that she died several years ago in a freak accident.  I met both her and her sister at that conference at their roundtable workshop. They, along with several other elderly Filipino Americans, spoke about their experiences growing up in the Central Valley and having to compete with "Arkies" and "Okies" for jobs. The older men talked about never having to go hungry during the Great Depression because, even though they were poor and literally lived on the "wrong side of the tracks", they survived by growing their own vegetables and fruits and by eating cuts of meat that white Americans didn't like as well as the "throwaway" parts. It was really cool listening to their stories. These manongs and manangs were the children of migrant workers, born and raised in the U.S. and had no trace of any Filipino or Ilocano accents. Many of my generation aren't used to seeing and hearing older Filipinos who've been here since the late 20's or early 30's.

At the bottom left corner of the mural is Lapu Lapu himself.

The artists' signatures:

One last look...

More info about the mural:

Johanna Poethig

Artist info and slides of the newly finished mural in 1984

A more detailed writeup on the mural:
History is Written on the Walls" by poet Barbara Jane Pulmano Reyes, one of Thane's grad school friends from Cal.

What a morning! One day TC will thank me for all of these historical forays!

Time for a snack!

SF - Day 3: Filipino Street Signs in the SoMa

In the ethnically diverse South of Market (SoMa) district in San Francisco where many Filipinos reside, is a small enclave of streets named after Philippine national heroes along with an 8-story high mural. I was curious about these street signs as well as the mural which I googled and and saw some nice engagement photos of a young Filipino American couple on this photographer's website.

This was our last day in SF and we'd be flying home later that evening. I had a checklist of things for us to see and do and eat. So, first off was checking out the street signs!

Dedicated in 1979 by the city of San Francisco, these streets were named after important figures in Philippine history which also paid homage to Filipino community. Mabini Street is named after Apolinario Mabini, a revolutionary leader who wrote the plan for the Constitution for the first Philippine Republic. He also served as the country's first prime minister at the end of the 19th century.

Corner of Bonifacio and Mabini.

Bonifacio Street is named after the nationalist and revolutionary leader Andres Bonifacio, the founder and leader of the KKK (Kataataasang Kagalangalang Katipunan), a secrety society aimed at overthrowing Spain which had colonized the Philippines for over 300 years. Of note, the official name of the Filipino American student organization at SDSU is AB Samahan with AB originating from Andres Bonifacio.

Corner of Tandang Sora and Bonifacio. Tandang Sora is the nickname of Melchora ("Sora") Aquino, a female revolutionary leader. Tandang comes from the Tagalog word, "matanda" (old); she was 84 when the Philippine Spanish Revolution broke out in 1896. She housed, nursed, and fed revolutionaries as well as allowed them to have secret meetings in her home.

Corner of Mabini and Bonifacio:

Corner of Bonifacio and Lapu Lapu. While Lapu Lapu is also the name of a fish, it is first and foremost the name of the first Filipino to successfully repel foreign invasion. Lapu Lapu was a datu (chieftain) in Mactan in Cebu. He and his men are attributed to having killed Magellan although (there is some historical dispute as to whether Lapu Lapu was THE one to kill Magellan), therefore cutting short the Portuguese invader's plan to circumnavigate the globe. He's been featured on a stamp as well as honored with a statue to commemorate Magellan's defeat.

Corner of Rizal and Lapu Lapu. Rizal Street is named of Dr. Jose Rizal, another Philippine national hero who was executed by the Spaniards in 1896. More of a reformist, he didn't advocate for true independence from Spain as Bonifacio did. If he did, he would have lost many of the rights and privileges of his social class as he was one of the elite; a mestizo who spoke several different language and was educated. Bonifacio on the other hand was like a Filipino Malcolm X. Independence "by any means necessary". Rizal's novels (Noli mi Tangere and its sequel El Filibusterismo), written in the colonist's tongue (Spanish) were scathing social commentaries of Spain. Of course the Spaniard ruling class were pissed off and shot him to death by firing squad.

Located within this small area is the San Lorenzo Ruiz Center Apartments. San Lorenzo Ruiz is the first Filipino Saint and martyr. Turns out he was persecuted by Japanese during the late 17th century. He was canonized in 1987 by Pope JP2. If you go to any Catholic church with a large Filipino population (St. Charles, St. Michael's, Good Shepherd to name a few), there is most likely a statue or painting of San Lorenzo Ruiz.

Sidewalk stamped "Mabini":

We had a lot of fun walking around here. There were quite a few elderly Lolos and Lolas taking their morning walks. The tall buildings in the area provided much needed shade except at the intersection of Lapu Lapu and Rizal where it became blazing hot since it faced the sun. It was also right to a tall mural which I'll feature in my next post.

More info about the SoMa District:

Rodel Rodis's blog, Telltale Signs, "Welcome to SoMa"and a tiny bit of info from Virtual Tourist.
More detailed info can be found through this document from Wildflowers Institute," Outside In, Inside Out" by MC Canlas. I had the pleasure of meeting MC many years ago (not like he remembers me though!). But I sure do remember him because he gave a me a FREE and signed copy of his book, "SoMA Pilipinas Studies 2000 in Two Languages" about ten years ago at an event that I no longer recall. When in FANHS, I found that I got some perks as a book blurbist (I can't bring myself to say "reviewer").

An SFist article that caused a bit of a reaction "Double Your Lapu" (I think the guy who wrote it was just plain ig'nant);
And a reaction article to the one above, "SFist Blogger Makes Fun of Lapu Lapu Street in SF"

Up next, Philippine history condensed onto a ninety foot wall..

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center

There was a bit of a SNAFU with using the coupon. The chick at the counter said the "free" admission would be the child's admission and that we'd have to pay an additional adult. That was fkg bullshit. IN the past, Bert and I used the 2 for 1 for us, the Adults (because it saves more money), then paid the full child's price. After politely pointing out to her the coupon's "Buy One Admission and Get One Admission of Equal or Lesser Value FREE", she still refused to budge and said if we included the child's price in the same transaction, she had to make the child's price the free one. So Bert said, "Okay, we will use the coupon to buy OUR tickets, the adult tickets. On a separate transaction, we will pay for our child's ticket." She was very reluctant but knew that it was following the coupon's rules, so she rang us up separately. She was a fkg snatch and totally rude, not even polite to us. We were very polite but firm with her. We've never had problems before using these and were surprised to find such adamant opposition. Fk!

Anyhow, looks like the Science Center updated some of their exhibits. This place was stuck in the damn 70's and was in need of a do-over. Last time we went was in 2004 or 2005. This was the smoke tornado although you can't see it here just yet.

An overview of the kinda revamped Science Center. There's a bigger and better one up in LA next to Exposition Park and it's free too. Kicks ass on this one. Same with the one in San Francisco (except that one's not free).

There's Bert and TC still trying to conjure up a tornado.

Water tornado exhibit:

An optical illusion where you try to touch this spring but your hand passes through it because it's an upside down reflection. But when you take a photo, it looks like your hand is in FRONT of it. That's my hand there.

Bert and TC acting goofy with the "Anti Gravity Mirror":

There was a huge room where you could play with these mini flat building planks. This was the same room where they once housed the "Grossology" and "Animal Grossology" exhibits.

Bert did the shorter structure while TC's towered above his.

Within five minutes of us leaving the room, I predicted that someone would knock them down. When I peeked again, I was right! TC's tower was just begging to be knocked down. It was pretty fun building those. There were some pretty elaborate structures that were roped off too. Should have snapped a few shots of those. Whoever made them were budding architects!

You know what it's time for?

The return of the SF posts! Day 3! Heading your way soon!

Balboa Park

(continuation of last weekend's events)

After having had crepes at Fabrison's and checking out Little Italy, we took the scenic route to one of San Diego's gems, the Smithsonian of the West, Balboa Park. Traversing from Little Italy and somehow getting onto Laurel Street on the Prado, which is actually called the Cabrillo Bridge, built in 1914 (like most of the buildings in Balboa Park) for the Panama-California Exposotion in 1915.

Museum of Man and California Tower looming ahead. The bridge connects you to another wing of the museum.

Free organ concert at the Spreckals Organ Pavilion (named after a sugar tycoon), the largest outdoor organ pavilion.

To your left, the Mingei Museum of International Folk Arts and "El Cid" sculpture (horse statue).

"Woman of Tehuantepec" sculpture by Donal Hord (1935)at the House of Hospitality's courtyard fountain. He is the same sculptor who did Monty Montezuma at SDSU. There was a Filipino wedding reception going on at the courtyard that day. I gather they were Filipino judging from the last names on the sign. Their reception area (not shown here) was super nice and we could hear the dj playing some good music too! Old school! Oh yeah!

The Botanical Building, built in 1915, is the largest wooden lathe structure in the world. It was also featured in a brief scene in "Traffic" starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The building facing the Casa de Balboa. Look at the fancy ornamentation on the facade.

The building that houses the Museum of Photographic Arts and the Railroad Museum, the Casa de Balboa.

Heading southward, we saw this cool sign/advert for the San Diego History Museum.

On our way to Reuben H. Fleet Science Center!