The San Francisco Citizen

The traffic light controlling the western entrance of the Bunker Road Tunnel in the Marin Headlands makes you wait five whole minutes. Why? Because it only has one lane for cars, so traffic goes west for a few minutes and then east and then back again, all day long.  

There’s another way back to the Golden Gate Bridge but it’s a whole lot hillier.

After a long countdown, the green light appears. Click to expand:

And here’s your reward, after all the wait. Some people love it, while others get irritated: “Stop braking. Stop it, stop it.”

All in all, a fine tunnel. Look for it between Cavallo Point and Rodeo Cove the next time you’re in the Sausalito area.

Here’s what the Lime Point Light, located right next to the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge and close to Cavallo Point, looked like back in the day, courtesy of our friends at the United States Coast Guard. Click to expand:

But technological change and the arrival of the bridge in the 1930’s eventually put this station out of business. It was no picnic working there anyway, what with the occasional freighter collision and the constant rain of orange paint chips. 

This is how it looks these days, with just the fog station left (and the front gate open on this particular day, for some reason).

Sic transit gloria mundi 

This turkey vulture, seen above Sausalito, only eats things that are already dead anyway. A bird has a very sustainable lifestyle.

There’s something to be said for that.

By now you’ve seen the latest viral video recreating Indiana Jones’ famous Boulder Dash? From the Gootube:

“We built a huge LEGO boulder and then made our friend dress up as Indy and run from it. Fun times!

(How respectful the Youtube poster was of our corporate overlords, taking care to CAPITALIZE corporate names.)

Anyway, it sure got plenty of Diggs. 

However, some have alleged that the giant Lego ball was styrofoam and that the makers merely sought to promote a new game. (Who knows, you might like it.)

Irregardless, this has led to confusion on the Internets.   

From Flickr via tillwe, are these LEGO bricks or not? (Commenter Phill says nay. Commenter Martin says it’s Duplo.)

Some appear to have lost their faith in the Web:

Viral is so mid-2000s, now it’s just being exploited and we’re all gonna hate it.

And the famous Laughing Squid is now trying to give credit to the entire crew that pieced together all 5 million Legos, to no avail.

Was Teak Motion Visuals or Teak Films Production behind this corporate subterfuge? Some think Sausalito’s Butler Shine and Stern  (wouldn’t it be nice to be “hanging out on a fucking sailboat, while getting paid coupla hundred an hour“) may have had a hand in it.

Only Time Will Tell.

But in the meantime and while we’re on the topic, take a look at  Teak Motion Visuals’ attempt at verisimilitude. How contrived does this scene appear on a scale from 1 to 10? Can’t you just see the guy with a baseball cap plotting out the most effective bouquet of garbage?

Are we really suppose to listen to this Amazing Group of Talented Creatives, and then ”Clean the Bay” and “Start With This Beach?” This particular beach at Crissy Field? Srsly? Until the sexy but trash-strewn drunkfest known as the Bay to Breakers Footrace gets rerouted, the Crissy Field Protection Area will never look like that. (If you want real, then check out San Francisco’s Warm Water Cove - it still looks like this.)  

The makers of these contrived bits probably had a good time getting paid to do them, but when you start fibbing and shilling… Will this LEGO stunt end up on the list of Great Examples of Guerilla Marketing Gone Wrong?

Fail

Epic Fail.

Some people think of Sausalito as a Portuguese fishing village and that’s kind of credible.

This atypical view of San Francisico with Sausalito in the background makes S.F. look a little like a village as well - evidence of Manhattanization is to the left, so all you see is basically the same as what you would have seen in the 1930’s.

Some people would like to construct tall buildings on the waterfront, but there’ll be a lot of fighting before that happens. 

Click to expand.