Marini Plaza SLS
Having lost the Wilson translation of The Odyssey, and wanting to continue reading it (instead of waiting for the SFPL queue on the book to subside — which it may well not for some time to come, and even lengthen! ::chuckle::) I went out on an expedition last Sunday afternoon to buy it again. Not at Green Apple Books on Clement this second time (nor at indie fave Christopher's Books on Potrero Hill, which didn't have a copy; I called first) but at Ferlinghetti's legendary City Lights in North Beach/Chinatown.
On the way to which I set the Samādhi of Lay Sacraments (minus a traveling book element, but soon to arrive) in an unusual spot — although one can logically assert that ALL the SLS loci since it began being a thing in cognitive mindspace and actual geophysical reality have been 'unusual' each in its own way.
On any map of San Francisco, it's easy to spot the angular orthogonality of Columbus Avenue, the broad, dynamic thoroughfare which cuts diagonally across the grid of streets from the Financial District through Chinatown and North Beach and ending near the Aquatic Park and Ghirardelli Square. There is a small, triangular piece of Washington Square in the heart of North Beach made by the javelin stroke of Columbus piercing the lower left corner of the Square. It's called Marini Plaza, in honor of Frank Marini, a beloved North Beach civic benefactor.
But it's an unusual plaza in that it's fenced off, suggesting that people really shouldn't walk or stroll in there, or sit under its shady, broad and stately magnolia tree, or meditate by the shallow pond in it, or otherwise hang out anywhere inside it. I've often walked by it wondering what that sculpture at the base of the tree is, or is about. From a distance it looks like a crouching chimpanzee, easily unspied by the casual passerby, cloaked as it is by the shade of the tree and nearby overgrown grass and vegetation.
And on my walk to City Lights Books I decided on the spur of the moment as I passed by the tiny, triangular piece of the city to flout the law (such as it is), clamber over the waist-high wrought-iron fence (there is a small gate akimbo with easily bypassable lock and chain) onto a tree stump and walk in to see the sculpture up close, and to make of it the day's SLS locus. I first mentioned this to the Skandhim, though, and of course the synthetic morals police sensibly counseled against the trespass. I ignored their sage but silly advice. ::chuckle::
What follows is a 15-image slide show of the event, plus the 'aftermath' which was merely a continuation of my walk to the bookstore (as no one had accosted or arrested me for this cheeky intrusion), finding the target volume and, gleefully clasping it to my breast asking a kind passerby to photograph me with it, for posterity. And then enjoying the jazz band at Vesuvius Bar and Jack Kerouac Alley next to the legendary bookseller's building, book firmly in hand. Perhaps this time I'll even hang on to it for good...
Marini Plaza SLS photograph 1 of 15