Hearts in San Francisco
I was driving home from work last night and I noticed that they started putting heart sculptures along the Embarcadero which I use to drive home. I snapped this pic while driving to work this morning. This is part of the Hearts in San Francisco project which is similar to the thing that New York did a few years ago with the cow sculptures.
I guess this has been in planning for a while. I was very surprised last year when I arrived into to the city and found a Massive bow and arrow statue near the base of the Bay Bridge with the arrow pointing down into the ground (as if San Francisco is the heart... get it?). I'm not sure if it's the same project, but it all fits quite nicely.
I love this stuff.
Living in San Francisco is so fun like that. My In-laws were visiting a few weeks ago and its so fun to get to do the touristy stuff with visitors and re-experience The City again. I mean, is there a more wonderful place on Earth than Golden Gate park on a Sunny Sunday? I mean, it's like living in the city-equivalent of Disneyland!
I have to say, sometimes it does have it's annoying bits. Like sitting in traffic behind a slow moving Cable Car when you're in a hurry. Or this glowing review in the New York Times yesterday of the Satelite Guided GoCarts which bomb around my neighborhood constantly. I swear if I have to screech to a halt while one these things runs a stop sign in front of me again, I may decide to just run them over with my honkin' SUV instead. I mean, the carts are cute and all, but I, ahem, *live* here. We're all nuts in San Francisco, yes, but we drive normal cars. Ahh, I bitch, but I actually think it's kinda fun to have these little yellow cars buzzing around.
It's not just the tourist stuff and fantastic vistas which makes San Francisco so interesting either. The other day we were driving to the grocery store when we noticed a news copter flying around and when we got close there were some streets cut off heading towards the store. Turns out that there was a Anti-Genetically Modified Food rally in front of my Safeway. Very amusing. Then as we were walking down the cereal isle, I saw these stamps placed on the packages. In case you can't read it, it says: "GENETICALLY MUTATED CONTENT: Not Considered SAFE for Human Consumption." Very nice. We bought some granola instead. (Just kidding).
Anyways, I love living here. :-)
-Russ
Update: I got this nice email from one of the organizers of the hearts project:
Hello Russell,
I am the Artists Liaison for Hearts in San Francisco. I found your page by typing Hearts in San Francisco into Google and clicking on the I'm Feeling Lucky button. Yes, this project has been in the planning for two years. We now have 50 hearts on the streets and 80 more will be placed in the next month. The Bow and Arrow sculpture is not related but we did deliberately place the bullseye heart by Lance Jackson somewhat near this sculpture just for fun. It is located in front of Red's Java House. Thank you for taking notice of this project and posting it on your weblog.
Amy Kweskin
Artists Liasion
Hearts in San Francisco