Meanderings around Northern California

BROTHER SHUCKERS PRESENTS

If you’re looking for pearls you might as well start with the BBQ Oysters

RAIN OR SHINE ALWAYS A LINE

Dave Washer 415 519-0201 http://www.artgardens.net/ http://kidsandkameras.com/ http://phoebewasher.com/ http://issuu.com/wavedasher/docs/phoebeshiningstar. final.for_screen?viewMode=magazine coming soon BrotherShuckers.com/blog

There are times in one’s life that you take a step back and evaluate what is going on in your world... sure you can read the paper, peruse the trendy blogs, ask hipster kids with skinny jeans and terrorist scarves that look like a table cloth where they buy their coffee. You can even climb a mountain and meditate. You can go on craigslist.com and look for a job opportunity.

I like to walk the streets and look at the shops, the markets, the restaurants, the cafes, the coffee houses, the galleries, the vintage stores, the streets. I like to taste the food, talk to the owners, watch the people moving in their separate worlds. Ready and willing to stand in line for something that is quality, tasteful, engaging & Real. Looking for this undefinable nugget inspires me.

Living in Northern California gives me the opportunity to look deeply into lifestyle and image that is focused yet spreads out like some kind of mystical tapestry that I honestly believe is singular in the world. It gives me an opportunity to go to a variety of urban and natural settings and talk to a group of people who are incredibly engaging and insightful.

You can find here-- philosophy about quality of life, sustainable resources, farm fresh and local foods, young and old artists, inspired musicians, engaging entrepreneurs, style and grace that is integral to the individual, and a respect for those who step boldly into their worlds.... and all this is in relationship with the area that you live. We live in a variety of urban, rural and suburban areas that are all surrounded by (I believe) one of the most stunning landscapes, intriguing city-scapes, finest colleges, unique individuals in the world.

I can say a lot more... but for now this is the broad stroke that holds this canvas I am sending you.

These photographs represent two days of meandering. (Most photos are mine-- all shot on my i-phone). From the urban Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, to the more rural Napa, Sonoma, Marin, and West Marin. This is by no means some kind of indication of what is best, the hippest, the trendiest... it is just two days of me walking through some of my favorite places in this area I love so much.

So with this inspiration...

I take my last $40 purchase the domain name for:

BrotherShuckers.com My New Space: BBQ oysters from Tomales Bay, Wood Oven Organic Pizza with local cheese, the perfect chicken sandwich, quality local sausage and hotdogs, Single cup brewed overpriced coffee, IPA local beers, Quality wine list, High Ceilings with gallery walls, a table for important books, Cool ass T-shirts, bone white sculptures from deer skeletons, Hanging wall plants, native plant nursery, after school kids and cameras for the local under-served kids, a stage for musicians, guest speakers on important subjects and authors, a unique blog that is read on heavywood tables and viewed on inlaid ipads....

The Trendiest of the Trend....

High Quality individually brewed cups of coffee I like the name and the simple logo Definitely a line all the time

Starting in an Alleyway in the mission... fine slow individually brewed cups of coffee prove that people will stand in line to pay $4.00 for a quality cup of coffee

LOVE THIS LARGE OPEN ROOM WITH GALLERY SPACE FEELING... GREAT COFFEE AND NEIGHBORHOOD HANGOUT FEELING... LARGE INDUSTRIAL ROASTING FACILITY IN BACK Saw their coffee at whole foods

Coffee wars in SF blue bottle, fourbarrel, Philz & Ritual the last three found at Whole Foods....

i-pads on every table...

Who needs a laptop anyway

art on every wall

local artist have a long standing tradition of hanging out in the coffee houses.... art galleries on the walls and stages for music and poetry

I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz, who bared their brains to medan angels staggering on

Heaven under the El and saw Mohamtenement roofs illuminated,

who passed through universiArkansas and Blake-light trag-

ties with radiant eyes hallucinating edy among the scholars of war,

who were expelled from the obscene odes on the windows

academies for crazy & publishing of the skull,

who cowered in unshaven money in wastebaskets and wall,

rooms in underwear, burning their listening to the Terror through the

who got busted in their pubic a belt of marijuana for New

beards returning through Laredo with York,

who ate fire in paint hotels or death, or purgatoried their torsos night after night

drank turpentine in Paradise Alley,

with dreams, with drugs, with waking nightmares, alcohol and cock and endless balls, incomparable blind streets of shuddering cloud and lightning in the mind leaping towards poles of Canada & Paterson, illuminating all the motionless world of Time between, Peyote solidities of halls, backyard green tree cemetery dawns, wine drunkenness over the rooftops, storefront boroughs of teahead joyride neon blinking traffic light, sun and moon and tree vibrations in the roaring winter dusks of Brooklyn, ashcan rantings and kind king light of mind,

Vegan Cupcackes farmers Market Musicians

The San Francisco Ferry Building

Yes, it is all about the mushroom

FLORA GRUBB IS IN THEHEART OF HUNTERS POINT...

BUT IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE SPOTS... BASICALLY A NURSURY... IT SELL A VIBE AND HAS A CAFE AND COFFEE SHOP AS WELL AS BOOK STORE AND GUEST SPEAKERS ON TOPICS THAT MIGHT INCLUDE REPLACING YOUR LAWN WITH EDIBLES, SHEET MULCHING, NATIVES....

Everywhere you look surrounded by plants and ideas places to rest and then ponder your own ideas

Hanging Plants & woven sticks Hanging Plants

SF MISSION DISTRICT-- VALENCIA STREET where authentic culture

blends with trendy culture

I like a table with an eclectic but some undeniable philosophical perspective...

I like how the homeless guy blends in with the decor...

That’s Allyson... She was a big help on this day... Thanks Al

and a cat in a red tub

Give me heavy wood tables... with salvaged wood

PAXTON GATE One of my favorite stores on Valencia Street... Just for its originality and image... a strange combination of exotic plants, taxidermy, science, art, butterflies and Jr. science experiments. I’ve never taken someone to Paxton Gate who was not mesmerized by the experience of lingering here.

We all have our heroes... and Dave Eggers would certainly be one of mine.

Not only a brilliant writer he has this crazy shop on Valencia Street and in the back he has after school writing program for under-served kids in the mission

DELPHINO PIZZARIA

UNA PIZZA NAPOLATANA

New Large Space Wood Burning Oven 4 style pizzas they can only can bake 3 at a time Always a line

TARTINE....

So Special always a line always refined

Lolo

EAST BAY

Berkeley suburbs

Where vintage, spiritual, cultural, intelectual & good eats meet

LOCAL MARKET ON BROADWAY

EAST BAY

One item menu... (Basically) Always a line, always sells out The perfect Chicken Sandwich

I want this!

The sublime of comfort food

Preparation of the Sandwiches... 6 at a time... Henry agreed... Best sandwich he ever had!!!

This visit it was raining... but still a line inside....

You have to love these tables 51st & Telegraph, Oakland (2nd location on Broadway & Grand)

The Tale of the Yak

NAPA

OXBOW PUBLIC MARKET...

A BIT ON THE CLEAN SIDE, BUT IT HAS GOOD TASTE AND ON THIS RAINY THURSDAY MORNING WAS PACKED

HEAVY WOOD

ITS DEFINITELY NOT VEGAN...

I LOVE THE HEALTHY MEATS THEY HAVE ALL SORTS OF LOCAL MEAT HERE... RABBIT SAUSAGE TOO

FRIEND OF ALLYSON’S STARTED THIS BUSINESS AND IS VERY SUCCESSFUL... TALKED TO HIM AT HIS STORE IN NAPA “I HAVE NO COMPETITION” HEIRLOOM PLANTS ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF THE NEW DESIGN IN FOOD AND HEALTH GOING BACK TO BASICS

CORNER STONE SONOMA

EDIBLE GARDENS

ALL ABOUT HEIRLOOM TOMATOES

WEST MARIN

Point Reyes Station, Inverness, Bolinas, Olema, Marshall....

Hidden gems in the crown The Poetry of land, sea and living in relationship to them is the heart of this place...

WEST MARIN

LOCAL BOOKSTORE HAS GREAT AUTHORS READING

MARIN AGRICULTURAL LAND TRUST

OFCOURSE GREAT FARMERS MARKET EVERY SATURDAY

ATE HERE FOR LUNCH...

GREAT MENU WITH MOSTLY LOCAL FOOD HOME MADE BREAD IN WOOD BAKING OVEN I ORDERED THE OYSTER PIZZA OFCOURSE

WORKING WITH DAVID BEST ON AN ART INSTALLATION THAT IS GOING IN THIS FIELD IN POINT REYES FOR THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOPE FILM FESTIVAL

KIDS AND CAMERAS

Kids and Cameras teaches kids about photography and writing... These kids live in the San Francisco Tenderloin, one of the poorest neighborhoods in the City.

They learn about photography and then put there photos in a journal and write about them in an inspired way.... The program Pam and I started works with the after school program at the Tenderloin Glide Church.

(Thanks Paul for all your help) But what is really important is these kids are learning the confidence to be creative, spontaneous and artistic.

I can not describe how much this has meant to me over the last 18 months that I have been working with these kids. Profound....

STORES THAT SELL MEDICAL MARIJUANA IN BAY AREA (Petaluma, Sonoma & Napa seem open)

SPARK MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY MISSION STREET SAN FRANCISCO

STORES THAT SELL LIGHTS FOR GROWING PLANTS INDOORS

Growing Medical Marijuana is becoming a booming business. Look at the two maps I’ve printed showing the cannabis dispensaries and the grow light and hydroponics stores. Lights use massive amounts of electricity as well as fans and air conditioners. LED lights are not suitable for flowering plants but they are suitable for starting Clones. This technology is advancing rappidly. A good friend of mine is at the forefront of this field. He is the one supplying NASA space station with its LED grow lights.

These LED lights comparable to a 1000 watt light in luminance use less than your standard reading light.

They last up to 20,000 hours. Interesting Concept.

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