There are 3 types of people in the Bay Area. The first being people who know and love Point Richmond. The second being the people who know of it but refuse to visit because of the Chevron oil factories and neighboring ghetto. Lastly, there are the people who don't know about it at all. I am of the first kind. It's a special little town and I love it dearly.

This Monday is their 17th annual Memorial Day sale! The whole town comes together to put on one huge yard sale. It's rad. I have always found treasures for good prices, but this year I will be selling instead of buying (or at least trying). I've been doing some major summer cleaning and have bags of clothes, decorations, misc items and furniture. If nothing sells, I'll just add it to the crackhead collection.

little bunny foo foo

There is a back story to this bizarre little number here which unfortunately one could only understand if you were there. All I can say is, we were in Bolinas and it got awesomely weird. And the piece below is exactly what it looks like : a little person about 3 feet high made of clay, whose arms have been chopped off, wearing a bunny tail and bunny ears, having a "time out" in the corner. Weird, I know, but for me, weirder the better and well, bunnies are my power animal, so there you have it. I love this piece.

happy place

It's comforting just to know that this piece is a permanent fixture at the SF Moma and visiting it is one of my favorite things to do on the planet. My classmate had a funny store about someone she butt heads with last semester because one liked Jackson Pollack and the other Mark Rothko. Maybe there are two kinds of people in this world. A Pollack or a Rothko. But maybe it's like comparing apples and oranges, or Gene Kelley and Fred Astaire....there is no comparison.

Octagon House - Two Rock

On a drive through the countryside of Petaluma, Annie and I got lost and stumbled upon The Octagon House built in 1857 by Charles Blackburn. Come to find there are still several octagon houses all over the United States, 54 in California. This one in particular looked a little run down and spooky, but still neat. I am fascinated with architecture and historical facts. I totally dorked out on the internet about it. I found it quite interesting.

"Orson S. Fowler, a Yankee individualist and progressive social thinker, published The Octagon House: A Home for All in 1848.  In it he presented the advantages of an eight-sided house, including inexpensive construction costs and an abundance of windows useful for light and air circulation.  In New England, Fowler’s ideas and progressive thinking were adopted by numerous homeowners".

Two Rock. Octagon house. The house was built about 1857 by Charles Blackburn, who came west in 1852 in the same wagon train as Silas and Nancy Martin. A diary suggests the Martin's lived in the house by 1857. Evelyn McClure relates the following information:

He was born in Kentucky but moved to Illinois at age 4. He learned the harness making trade. He served as justice of the peace in Iowa and California. He served a term in the CA State Legislature from 1867 and in 1882. A charter member of the Grange and Odd Fellows and a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. He established a dairy herd on 326 acres in Two Rock in 1853. Silas married Nancy Cameron of Illinois. they had 4 daughters and 2 sons. Silas Martin died in 1894. The house stood vacant for a about a 20 year period, but miraculously was not badly vandalized, and was then occupied by Harold Martin, a great grandson of Silas Martin, in 1946.

Two story, with a large cupola, the house no longer has the porch which extended entirely around it. There is a spiral staircase to the second floor from a circular hallway in the center of the house.

According to information supply by Carolyn Winters, a great great granddaughter of Silas Martin, and who lived in the house starting in 1946, the seventh generation of Martins is living in the house today.

http://www.octagon.bobanna.com/CA.html

Also found a family photo of the Blackburns. Charles is the second feller from the left, backrow. He built this house with his own hands. Kind of amazing and creepy. The internet is crazy futuristic dude.