Where are they now?: Waldo Edition.

Ok, that's probably not something you've been worried about since the '90s . . . neither were we, but here he is, hanging out in real life, across from SF MOMA.

We assumed he was retired. Barring a potential comeback, I think I know the perfect candidate for his replacement:

Don't you agree?

London Eye(sore)

Here's a trivia question: What is the world's largest cantilevered observation wheel?
No. That's a good guess. Try again.
It's the London Eye and it would also be the answer to the question: "What was trying to muscle its way into 75% of Karen and Erik's pictures in London?"

See? You try to take a picture of the crazy cloudy sky and suddenly you've got a picture of the London Eye. And it dominates the photo. It's not like Big Ben* popping up in your picture. You don't mind that. It's expected, you're in London and it's Big Ben! Plus, he's been around a little longer than you, London Eye. Big Ben was completed a little before Lincoln gave his "House Divided" speech. London Eye, you opened around the time everyone was freaking out about Y2K.

 
Here's the Thames. Westminster Bridge and London County Hall. And Friend.
 

A shot of the Queen Victoria Memorial near Buckingham Palace. And well. . .

Okay, I'm just going to finish this post with a nice shot of Karen in London.

Big Ben, could you just step a little to your right. Please?


* The Burgs fully realize that the clock is not called Big Ben and it's just the nickname of the great bell in the Elizabeth Tower. But if we called it the Elizabeth Tower, no one would know what we were talking about.

Don't be afraid, I only want to suck your lichen!

To the casual observer, this may look like a deer with a pair of cheap vampire fangs. It is not. This is an actual animal called a musk deer. Those things sticking out of his mouth? His canine teeth.
Yes. It's a real thing. Go look it up . . . No, it's fine. we'll wait . . . Or here, look:

See? We're not making it up. And while he might look goofy, apparently he's a little stabby with those teeth. So if you see one in the wild, do not provoke him. Especially if he's with Bunnicula. 

It's good, but it might be a little grainy.

The Burgs recently participated in an interactive science exhibit. Our favorite part was having our picture taken and then a robot drew the image in the sand. It was pretty cool, but Mrs. Burg is a little concerned it was all a cover to test out an army of robot street performers.

Looks just like us!
(psst...that's Erik on the left)

Sleepfest 2012*

So the Burgs took a vacation recently to England and decided to break up the flight by stopping for a few nights in New York. The goal was to see some of their friends and partially adjust to the time difference. Only problem? They were both really, really sick when they landed.

Long story short, we spent roughly 43 of our 48 hours in New York City asleep in quite possibly the best hotel ever for sick people in Manhattan. (Seriously, tell your friends, it was so quiet and clean!)

We rallied for dinner and brunch with friends, but all in all, this was our view roughly 90% of the trip.

*This reference is basically for Alison and Karen, I don't get it either, but Karen assures me it's hilarious. 

Adieu, Emeryville

As we mentioned earlier, Emeryville was fine, but only a temporary home while we found a place in San Francisco that could fit all of our books and Karen's kitchen equipment.

We will miss the public art around the old neighborhood. Although . . .  we never showed you the back side of our earlier post. You thought the front was creepy? Well, look out:

A little creepier, eh? Well, let's pull out for the full context.

Yikes! But the worst one for me was the father and son:

I don't know if it's the tie looking like his ribs, or the child's over sized hands, but it's all a little disturbing. Anyhow, we're still unpacking and settling into our new digs, but we'll post some photos of the new place soon. (Hint: There's a lot of wood paneling, A LOT.)

More fun with Post-it Notes

Recently, this was spotted in the window of an office complex near our apartment:

Apparently, someone else has a surplus of Post-it notes and even more time on their hands than Mr. Have a Nice Day (see two posts previous). I'd say something disparaging right here if it wasn't such nice work.
Next time, office artiste, I would like to see a Hoth action scene. How many Post-its in an AT-AT?

But He's Got Such a Good Personality

We became members of the Academy of Sciences recently. It's pretty cool. I mean, it's not Museum of Natural History cool, but what is really?  Anyway . . . We really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to spending a lot more time with our new aquarium friends. Case in point, this guy:

Also awesome? That lady's eyes behind him. Kudos Mr. Burg, Kudos.

He has some more popular friends. They're pretty cute, but I really have a soft spot for beardy up there.

Good Times . . .

Your Face is a Nice Day

Soooooo. We like it here, honestly, we do. But sometimes I feel like we're staring in a movie titled Hippies: The Aftermath. Which is fine, but usually I just want to tell them to get their patchouli stink out of my town.

 

We get it, you may work in corporate America, but you're still cool, man. Congratulations. The only thing that makes this ok is that it feels a little bit like an Ignignokt and Err reference.

  

 Incidentally, Karen works in this building.

The Thing That Ate San Francisco

This is the Golden Gate Bridge:

Or part of it. Not sure if you're aware, but there's a lot of fog in San Francisco. Who knew? It's cool and eery and pretty fun sometimes. Other times it's just cold.

Watch your back, Dick Cavett!

This was spotted on the curb in our neighborhood. Apparently, someone is setting up for their new talk show. . . and they're beaming it back to the '70s. Tonight's guests include a guy from Pixar and a guy from Clif bar.
Sadly, Ziggy Stardust couldn't make it.

It's Kind of Pretty Here

Karen finds herself distracted a lot in her new office. The problem is, they're located up pretty high in a building in the Financial District. The views are pretty amazing. This is what she sees from a very popular conference room:
Window 1

 Window 2

And these were taken on a cloudy day . . . imagine her problems concentrating when it's sunny out? Fortunately, that's pretty rare around these parts.

And we're back.

Sorry for the gap in posts. We'll try to be better. In their absence, the Burgs had a wasp problem. No, it had nothing to do with familial guilt and obligation -- actual wasps. Insects. The things were building a nest inside the screen door. Luckily, Erik had recently procured a better camera.

Yes. That's between the screen and the glass door. Building a nest, on the inside of the screen door. Wasps are pushy creatures. They can't help it.

Nice Try, Sedona

As many of you know, Mrs. Burg spent a good portion of her youth living in the Sedona area. She knows her way around red rocks and t-shirt shops that sell clothes dyed by red dirt.  People come from all over to take pictures of the rocks because they're soo special.

Well guess what? There's another place with the exact same crap. It's called Kauai. And you know what, it's surrounded by a gorgeous ocean. Try beating that, "Vortex."

Cock of the Walk

Apparently, Kauai is infested. . . with roosters. Yes, you heard correctly.

 Rest areas.

Picnic areas.

 

In parks.

At the beach. (I know!?!?!)

How Karen feels about this.

We All Love Train Travel, But This is Just Commuting

NY: Hey SF, Karen and Erik moved over there a few months ago and while your public transportation leaves a little to be desired, you do get them to work everyday and that's appreciated.
SF: Yes, we don't have all the crazy lines you guys have with A and the C, the F and the G. It's hard to keep them all straight!
NY: Not really that hard.
SF: OK. One question though, why are the seats so uncomfortable? Check out these new comfy seats we're rolling out to all our Bart trains. They're awesome!
NY: I know.  I was about to ask about those. Erik sat in one the other day; he thought he was on the Concorde. Why would you do that?
SF: Do what?
NY: Well, those are going to get trashed. Wouldn't it be better to have something easier to clean? And, I don't know, more durable?
SF: …
NY: See you in six months!

The Secret Word Today: Scary. AHHHHHH!

In our ongoing series on the public art around Emeryville, there's these metal people populating the underpass on Powell Street leading to the freeway. They're all larger than life-size with cutouts specially lit to make for some interesting shadows at night.

 

Here's a nice man giving someone directions from a map.

 It's a map of Emeryville in case you were wondering. 

 

Here's a guy jogging with his dog.

Here's a lady in a wheelchair. I don't know if she should be traveling so fast...in the underpass...so close to the traffic.

The style reminds us of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse" somehow. Maybe it's the eyes. Or just the general awesome creepiness. We'll try to get over there at night. It's a little bit of a dicey walk . . . but totally worth it. You'll see.

Danger: High Voltage, Or Something

There's a lot of public art in Emeryville. It's hard to miss as you walk past it every day. Some of it is a little unconventional.

One artist has his art on utility boxes throughout the city. They're his take on the traditional pedestrian figure. Normally you see the figure doing normal things on signs like crossing the street (pedestrian crossing) or crossing the street with a bookbag (school crossing). Here, he's doing odd things you don't normally see. Such as (see above) growing a tree out of his foot? Or...

...giving himself an autopsy? Or...

Well, I don't know. Now you're just ripping off Saul Bass. And are you doing the robot??

I'm not paying 99 cents for that.

Erik recently transferred his driver's license back to California. Devotees might remember that the last time he changed out his license some mild snakehandling was involved. This time, he was struck by the number of snotty posters at the DMV about drunk driving, texting and driving, etc. Some were iPhone-themed, others were more just outdated internet themed.

Ok. The one on the left has an open grave and really doesn't make much sense grammatically unless you accept that myspace is a thing anymore (which it's not). 

On the right, it's not a great photo but the poster says "Drunk driving? We got an app for that." First, it seems odd that the DMV would have an app for anything, let alone death. Secondly, the icon is a grim reaper? That seems a little too predictable for my taste, a coffin with a martini on it would've been much, much cooler.

City of Industry (Sculptures)

We've been touring our (temp) hometown of Emeryville whenever time and weather allows. It's a small place, with a lot of interesting history and buildings.

We noticed this gem before we even signed our lease. It's not the only reason we live here, but it definitely didn't hurt. The building is actually a working office for PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric for those of you who've never lived in California or are just not so great at acronyms).

There are two sections with three scenes per section. We're not sure what these murals are called, so we've decided to name each scene for you:

Brighty of the Grand Canyon's Cousin (It's a long story, Karen really liked that book as a small child.)

Flames of Industry (that's probably it's real name, we should really Google things before writing posts.)

Daniel Plainview's Alternate Life Story

Whew, three more left!

 Salmon Voyeur

 Just Before Dr. Frankenstein Animates His Monster

Crazy Lines (apparently one of M.C. Escher's first drafts)

Trash Time for Teddy Bears

Karen and Erik left their apartment.

They went to their garage and saw this.

In case you were thinking that wasn't a giant Teddy bear perched upon the Dumpster. 

It was.

Let's take a closer look. Karen doesn't want to . . . but let's do it.

YIKES!

I'm not scared. How about you, Karen?

Karen?

. . . Karen?