20 points
Dérive by Ian Kizu-Blair, qwerty uiop
March 7th, 2006 1:56 AM / Location: 37.757568,-122.3925
Ian:
Sam and I started out at the UPS Depot on 16th and Mariposa. We were picking up LEDs that had missed us at home earlier.
We decided to wander towards Potrero Hill... not for any reason, in particular, but because we needed to head some direction. We weren't aware that we were on a derive yet. We found that at the corner of San Bruno and Mariposa we were on a hill with the skyline behind us. The noise from the traffic of 101 was quite loud. The fence is bent so that people can climb under and drink in the bushes by the freeway.
We walked several more blocks and found the overpass. It's a very beautiful place... the cars are like river rapids thundering by underneath you.
Past the overpass are "The Benches," a collection of benches right by the freeway. Considering the fact that there are almost no benches anywhere near downtown SF it seemed quite incongruous. I decided that people couldn't sleep on them because of the noise of the freeway, and that's why they were built. I'm not sure if that's true.
We walked up to a park near the top of Potrero Hill. The view was extraordinary and from a different angle than usual. It's interesting which sides (literally) of the city you see from different hills. A massive and looming cloud was being emitted by a building behind one side of the hill, which wasn't really captured by the picture.
A winding street took us down the backside of the hill. We photographed a man watching TV in his apartment. At this point we had almost no idea where we were. We turned east and walked up an extremely steep hill which led us to a bus stop on a deserted corner. It seemed impossible that buses would pass by there. There were no cars and it was very quiet. Suddenly a bus appeared and we stopped it and jumped on in the middle of the intersection. It was dark outside and the windows had a lot of glare from the lights inside, so we couldn't really see anything going by. The bus was a like an airplane, a transportation pod. We were at Market in a flash and jumped off. At this point it was clear we were on a derive and I tried to say something coherent about psychogeographical truths standing in the fountains in UN Plaza.
Sam and I started out at the UPS Depot on 16th and Mariposa. We were picking up LEDs that had missed us at home earlier.
We decided to wander towards Potrero Hill... not for any reason, in particular, but because we needed to head some direction. We weren't aware that we were on a derive yet. We found that at the corner of San Bruno and Mariposa we were on a hill with the skyline behind us. The noise from the traffic of 101 was quite loud. The fence is bent so that people can climb under and drink in the bushes by the freeway.We walked several more blocks and found the overpass. It's a very beautiful place... the cars are like river rapids thundering by underneath you.
Past the overpass are "The Benches," a collection of benches right by the freeway. Considering the fact that there are almost no benches anywhere near downtown SF it seemed quite incongruous. I decided that people couldn't sleep on them because of the noise of the freeway, and that's why they were built. I'm not sure if that's true.
We walked up to a park near the top of Potrero Hill. The view was extraordinary and from a different angle than usual. It's interesting which sides (literally) of the city you see from different hills. A massive and looming cloud was being emitted by a building behind one side of the hill, which wasn't really captured by the picture.
A winding street took us down the backside of the hill. We photographed a man watching TV in his apartment. At this point we had almost no idea where we were. We turned east and walked up an extremely steep hill which led us to a bus stop on a deserted corner. It seemed impossible that buses would pass by there. There were no cars and it was very quiet. Suddenly a bus appeared and we stopped it and jumped on in the middle of the intersection. It was dark outside and the windows had a lot of glare from the lights inside, so we couldn't really see anything going by. The bus was a like an airplane, a transportation pod. We were at Market in a flash and jumped off. At this point it was clear we were on a derive and I tried to say something coherent about psychogeographical truths standing in the fountains in UN Plaza.
