Christmas Lights

Kevin's sister Maureen is visiting from New Jersey.  After dinner the three of us drove around searching for the most fabulous Christmas houses in San Francisco.  Here is a sampling of what we saw.  The first place we stopped at was a house on Castro Street, across from Davies Hospital, featuring a giant Santa.  We stopped at another house we didn't photograph, then drove on to the infamous Tom and Jerry house on 21st Street on Castro Hill.






Walking down the hill towards the house, panoramic view of the City in the background.  The shadowy figure in the foreground, on the right, is Kevin photographing the same scene.

A closer view of the 30-foot high Christmas tree.

A couple standing underneath the tree, with its giant bulbs and presents. 

There were many other people there, photographing the same things we were photographing, and I thought of the Most Photographed Barn in America, from Don DeLillo's White Noise:

"Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender. We see only what the others see. The thousands who were here in the past, those who will come in the future. We've agreed to be part of a collective perception. It literally colors our vision. A religious experience in a way, like all tourism."


Kevin and Maureen sitting in the love seat placed beside the tree.

Looking up the crotches of life-size marionettes attached to the side of the garage.  The marionettes' legs and arms move up and down.  There were many moving parts to the display, including two toy trains, twirling Barbie dolls, and an intricate wheel/mandala that spins.

Finally, we headed over to kink.com, which has taken over the old Armory on 14th Street.  Here's a very inadequate picture of the lights draping the top of the building.  Note the festive American flag on the far left.  Kevin says kink.com's proud display of the American flag is controversial, particularly with some Veteran's organizations.  But I say, kink.com is a capitalist success story.  It has as much right to be proud of being American as anybody.