4 posts tagged “san luis obispo”
Like stars. I can see so many stars out here. Without a big city near by filling the sky with light the stars are actually visible. I can even see planets if I know where to look.
And ads for septic tank pumping; or septic tanks for that matter. In the city we have fancy plumbing and sewers.
This week a new sign appeared that I'm not in a city anymore. This time it was an actual sign.
Just not something you have to worry about in the city.
This weekend in the San Luis Mission Plaza was I Madonnari, a street painting festival.
Street painting has a long tradition in cities in Western Europe and probably started in Italy in the 16th century. The artists who use chalk to draw on the street are known as "madonnari" or "Madonna painters" because they reproduced icons of the Madonna. The works are traditionally called street paintings, rather than chalk drawings or sidewalk art, because when well executed they can resemble paintings. The artists would travel from town to town and create street paintings for traditional religious and folk festivals. These artists lived (and still live) from the coins thrown onto their work in appreciation for the image and the artist's skill.
There were dozens of artists there. Companies and organizations
bought
or sponsored squares and people volunteered to do the chalking and
painting. The event is sponsored by the American Institute of
Architecture so there are lots of architects and designers there but
there are plenty of seemingly normal people doing drawings as well.
It's quite impressive, below are a few of my favorites.
All the photos we took are on my Flickr set.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thefinned1/sets/72157607293256049/
The company logo is hidden in her crown.
This is a corgi named Rose. She's so cute with the chalk on her face!
This is far from my favorite but it gives me inspiration.
I want to buy a square next year and paint this:
Hopefully with some practice and some money I can actually do it.
Boo Boo's is a locally owned independent record store in San Luis Obispo, where my Old Lady hails from. She forwarded me their latest e-newsletter today, below is an excerpt.
How awesome is that?Occasionally a customer sighs and says "gee, I wish I could spend this big box gift card here, they never seem to have what I really want, and you always do". Well, now you can use those unwanted gift cards from Aunt Betty, Grandma Moses, or whoever thought it was cool to hook you up with generic big box #7214. We will gladly accept gift cards from any major, non-independent store that sells entertainment media in our area. This includes, but is not limited to: Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Barnes & Noble, Borders, Wal-Mart, and Starbucks. All you need to do is bring in your card and we'll give you the full value on anything in our store.
"The poor words with which natural human speech is provided, cannot suffice to describe the Madonna Inn." - Umberto Eco
It is truly impossible to accurately describe The Madonna Inn that quote I pulled off Wikipedia is the closest thing I've ever read or heard as an accurate description; but more on that later.
I spent this Thanksgiving with The Wife's family this year. I almost spent it with RRX and TMD stuffing ourselves with various cuts of yummy meats at Rei's but in the end The Wife won out.
The Wife is from San Luis Obispo which in the Central Coast of California, it's a small town barley 50,000 people with a college of nearly 20,000 (which could put the actual permanent population down to 30,000 people if you look at it that way) about 300 miles north of San Diego.
The first several times I visited were kind of strange. Coming from a city, albeit not the biggest city but a city nonetheless, where I could walk around in anonymity for days on end without seeing anyone I knew or who knew me and going to a place where you can't walk 1/2 a block without seeing someone you know or grew up with was really putting me on edge and I wasn't even the one running into people.
When I first visited the downtown area I was surprised by how small it was. I'm pretty sure if you took San Diego's Fashion Valley mall (including parking) and dropped it in the downtown area of SLO it would be roughly the same size, maybe a little bigger or smaller.
Pulling of the freeway on the first or second exit in town there is a patch of land where cows roam and graze freely (there are miles of this on CA-101 actually, it's awesome) on the other side there is a patch where a farmer has setup a stand selling his fresh fruit and vegetables. There are a couple places like that inside of and just outside of town. Every Thursday night they close off the streets downtown and have a huge Farmers Market.
Arguably the crown jewel of San Luis is the Madonna Inn. It's, um, pink. And I mean that in every sense of the word. The place is crazy, many of the rooms are uniquely themed (Caveman, Old Mill, Safari) and the restaurant "The Copper Cafe" has a odd, almost comical European style to it. Even the mens rooms are unique in that there are no urinals but a 5 foot wide waterfall that turns on when you step up to it. (Which if you you may not want to use if you are wearing flip-flops.)
Over time (and I'm loathe to say this as I know The Wife will eventually read this and hold it against me; no doubt on a computer where I am logged into Vox so marking it Friends and Family would do no good) I did grow to love the visits. The small town (SLO) way of life really has gotten to me. I find that when I really grow tired of work and just about everything else a long weekend in SLO chillaxin' tends to recharge my batteries 10 times more than spending the same time in Haus der Platten.
I can't recommend a personal visit enough (RRX! (Whoa, I almost felt like ALW for a second there)) If you happen to be driving up the California coast or are looking for a nice weekend getaway place, SLO is tops IMHO. The surrounding communities have gorgeous beaches, hot springs, mountains to climb, trails to hike and bike and a whole host of shops and restaurants.
