(Screencapture: Los Angeles Times Online, December 18, 2009)
The Los Angeles Times, a paper I grew up reading, has a section in it's online version entitled, "Bizarre And Unusual Destinations Around The World". As I started clicking down the list of photos, suddenly there was the picture above -- right after a glow-in-the-dark worm grotto. As Charles Bronson would have said, Whut d'hell??
Lombard In 1933, taken from an apartment building almost
opposite on Hyde street. Houses on the left (South) side of
Lombard had been demolished to create a firebreak following
the 1906 earthquake. (History Center, S.F. Public Library)
As a boy, visiting The City with my family, we occasionally took a trip down this section of Lombard. As a resident, I've only driven it a few times -- in late Fall and Winter, when traffic isn't backed up by a line of Die Touristen in their rented vehicles, wanting to drive down its 87-year-old brick-cobbled curves (read this article about the history of Lombard's "crooked" portion by Susan Saperstein, San Francisco City Guides organization).
But, that section of Lombard Street between Leavenworth and Hyde on Russian Hill isn't what we'd refer to as a 'Bizarre' travel destination.
On the Other Hand...
San Francisco, and the Bay Area, has given the world Silicon Valley, Apple and Macintosh and iPod and iPhone; Adobe and Macromedia, Electronic Arts and Google; the Free Speech Movement; the Haight and the Castro; The Beats and City Lights; American Conservatory Theatre (it is the best off-Broadway company); Underground Comix, and the Psychedelic and Outsider Art of the 60's; The Grateful Dead and the Airplane / Starship; The Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge and the Marin Redwoods; The Dot-Com Bubble (Our Bad; sorry); The Suicide Club, Cacophony Society and Burning Man.
Los Angeles has given us Hollywood.
Oh, and some guy standing out on Sunset and LaBrea with a sign that says Be Incoherent Like Me! Ask Me How!
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