Trip to San Francisco April 16th - 28th April 2006

100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference
1906 San Francisco Earthquake
April 18-22, 2006
The Moscone Center
San Francisco
http://1906eqconf.org

Sunday April 16th

Departed Sydney at 1440 on United Airlines Flight UA-870

• Not Much Sleep.
• No mobile phone games - may interfare with plane communications as flight attendant tells me.
• Woman sitting next to me is obsessed with her Anthony Robins self motivation book and yellow highlighting pen.
• No cigarettes.
• Arrive San Francisco at 1050. 
• Time difference between SYD and SFO is 17 hours.
• Dropped bag @ Hotel Des Arts, 447 Bush St, San Francisco 
  http://www.sfhoteldesarts.com/
• Visited the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) 
  http://www.sfmoma.org/
-  SFMOMA had two exhibitions in particular that were of interest to me;
1. 1906 Earthquake: A Disaster in Pictures which were historical photographs of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
2. Beyond Real: Surrealist Photography and Sculpture from Bay Area Collections, excellent collection of photographs from Man Ray, Cindy Sherman to Henri Cartier Bresson.
• Back to Hotel Des Arts for checkin at 3pm, booked into the 'Punkadelic' Room.
• Japanese sushi and miso soup for dinner.

Monday April 17th

• Jet lagged.
• Woke tired, walked to Pier 48 to see a historical 1906 San Francisco Earthquake Exhibition.
• Registered for the Earthquake Conference and received the conference kit bag with goodies included.
• Sat in on two conference sessions.
- 'The What Where and How Of Earthquakes'
- 'An Introduction To Tsunamis'
• Walked up Telegraph Hill to see Coit Tower of which some historical 1906 Earthquake Footage was being projected on the tower. Great view of San Francisco in the dark.
• Salad and garlic bread for dinner while watching 1906 SF earthquake shows on TV

Tuesday April 18th (Commemoration Day)

•  Woke at 5.00am to check out the 5,12am Lotta Fountain Ceremony. Corner of Market and Kearny Streets, Downtown.
•  Back to the hotel and sleep for a while.
•  Rocked up at the conference to listen in on the San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom open the conference.
•  A little later the Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger  spoke at the conference. Indeed contrasting p[olitical views.
• Sat in on two sessions at the conference;
- 1. 'Earthquake Science In The 21st Century : Understanding The Process That Control Earthquakes'
- 2. 'Seismic Risk Assessment And Upgrade For Sustainable Buildings'
•  Later that evening caught a bus to Richmond to see the famous 1936 film 'San Francisco' starring Clark Gable Jeanette      MacDonald and Spencer Tracey at the Balboa Cinema. Along with the feature film a screening of 3D stereoscopic  footage and an unknown special effects from around the 1930's was also shown
  http://balboamovies.com/

Wednesday April 19th

• Woke late caught the end of a session at the conference on
• 'Seismic Risk and Comprehensive Emergency Management: Lessons Learned and Future Challenges'
• Then continued with the following two sessions
- 1.'The Great Sumatran Earthquakes of 2004 and 2005'
- 2.'Next Generation Earthquake Monitoring 1'
•Left early to catch the BART train over to Berkeley UC to sit in on a lecture Ken Goldberg gave to design students about his work.
- http://goldberg.berkeley.edu/index-flash.html
• BART back to San Francisco, ate a Claudes a french styled restarant just down the road from Hotel Des Arts.

Thursday 20th April

•  Woke late again (the time zone was disorientating). Also woken about 3am by dumpster truck emptying bins outside hotel.
•  Back to the conference to sit on the session at the conference titled;
- Earthquake Predictions: Where Are We Going And How We Know When We Get Their'
•  Brought some Levi jeans (Its what you do when you visit SF), then caught a crowded bus up to Haight St to catch the seminal Cohen  Brothers film 'The Big Lebowski '  at the Red Vic Movie House
http://www.redvicmoviehouse.com/
•  Had dinner at the 'All You Knead Cafe' on Haight St consuming a Pork Steak and Vegetables.
•  Caught the bus back to the hotel. It was freezing.

Friday 21st April

•  Last session of the Conference.
•  Checked email.
•  Caught BART back to Berkely UC
•  Visited the Berkely Art Museum
- Watched Robert Smithsons 'The Spiral Jetty' 1970
- Also viewed Jean Tinguely's 'Homage To New York' 1960
- Also on display were Robert Oppenheims's photogrpahs of 'Open Rings' 1968-69
- http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/
•  Brought two great books
- 'The Earth Machine'
- 'Spiral Jetty'
•  Vietnamese seafood soup for dinner in Berkeley.
•  BART back to SF.

Saturday 22nd April

•  Woke early visited Pier Market for breakfast.
•  Caught Taxi over to Jackson Park, Protrero Hill to meet Ken Goldberg @ his daughters 3rd Birthday.
•  From the BDay party caught cab over to Haight St.
•  Found come great DVD's
- 'Man With A Movie Camera' Dziga Vertov
- 'Videodrome' David Cronenburg
•  Checked in again at the Red Vic Movie House to catch an independant SF B-grade 'The American Astronaut'.
•  Ate a meal of Lamb skewer and Cous Cous at Asqew on Haight St
•  Walked back to Hotel Des Arts, long walk.
•  Took in a couple of episodes of 'Law and Order'.
•  Discovered a new search engine www.ask.com

Sunday 23rd April

•   Slept late till 9.30am
•   Coffee @ Starbucks (Why Not?
•   Walked to the Fishermans Wharf then right around the Bay to the 'Exploratorium' and 'The Palace Of Fine Arts'
•   Was looking for an exhibition 'Turning Tables : An Installation Of Tectonic Spaces', could not find it, dissapointed.
-   http://www.exploratorium.edu/
•   Began walking back towards downtown, passed by the Moscone Recreational Park, sat in and watched a game of 
    local baseball. 'Grizzlies vs Steelbeads', the 'Steelbeads' were winning when I left.
•  Arrived back at Hotel Des Arts via North Beach and China Town and the Disney Store in Post St. Here I picked up a     Micky and Mini Mouse for Luli and Beni (My Daughters).
•  Had Beef Bourguignon  @ a French restaurant just down the road from the hotel.
•  Exhausted, probablay walked 20kms today. Legs hurt!
•  Rang home, crashed out.

Monday 24th April

• Woke 8am ish. Breakfast.
• Caught BART over to Berkeley UC.
• Attempted to hook up with Marcia Tanner and independant curator. Was NOT dialling the right prefixes no. NO contact.
• Sat in Internet Cafe, checked and sent email.
• Over again to the Berkeley Art Museum. Unfortunately closed on Mondays!
• Brought some skate shoes.
• Caught a bus up the hill to Lawrence Hall of Science.
• Lawrence Hall of Science is very similar to that of the Exploratorium, though it currently had a great exhibition of   Dinosaurs. Life size animatronic creatures. 
- http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/
• Bus and BART back to SF
• Spoke with Marcia Tanner on the phone in the evening. She gave some good insights and pointers towards taking the 
  eq simulator to the USA.
• Ate some dodgey meal in some dodgey downtown diner.
• Watched parts of 'First Blood' with Sylvester Stallone. (Rambo)
• Crashed out!

Tuesday 25th April

• Bagel and Coffee for breakfast.
• Brought converse shoes for the girls + extra pair for myself.
• Caught CalTrain to Menlo Park about 1 hr by train away.
- http://www.caltrain.com/
• Upon arrival to Menlo Park I had great difficulty finding the USGS headquarters. (United States Geological Survey)
- http://www.usgs.gov/
• Eventually found the USGS and met with Andrew Michael, a seismologist. Discussed the recent eqconference in SF,   earthquakes in general, his earthquake music and my earthquake simulator.
- http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/~michael/
• CalTrain back to SF.
• Struggled again to find something to eat.
• Went to a late night screening of V for Vendetta.
- http://vforvendetta.warnerbros.com/

Wednesday 26th April

•  Woke early, 8am after a good nights sleep.
•  Coffee and bagels for breakfast, checked out a hardware store for tools.
•  Again caught the BART back over to Berkely UC. 
•  Brought some clean underwear and T-Shirt for flight back to Sydney
•  Spent around 2 1/2 hours at the Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. Took plenty of photographs of the exterior,  unfortunately was not able to photograph the interior with prior written permission.
• Checked out the bookshop @ Berkeley Art Museum and again brought more books.
- The Object Of Performance
- Robert Smithson
- Robosapien
•  Watched the Robert Smithson movie 'The Spiral Jetty' 2 times. Took complete notes of the flow of the film. Wonderful film.
• Headed back to SF on BART after consuming pizza slice for lunch, in fact the best pizza I had in SF and noting that the  best coffee I had in SF was over at Berkely UC.
• Packed bag and actually had to buy a new one as brought books, dvds, shoes and jeans + conference material.
• Checked out of hotel at 6pm. Requested a late checkout.
• Meal of Salmon and Salas at a diner called Tads downtown SF.
• Carried bloody heavy bag to BART Montgomery St Station, of which caught BART to SFO Airport.
• Checked in luggage, had to repack into two bags as it would have costed an extra $25 (USD) cause one bag was too heavy.
• Explosive GE (General Electric) scanner picked up trace of something. This required full search by security staff.
• United Airlines UA863 flew out of SFO at 10.40pm. Long 14 hr flight, watched a few movies, read a little, slept a little.
• Arrived back at Sydney Kingsford Smith airport 6.25 am Friday 28th April 2006.

REFERENCE WEB LINKS

100th Anniversary Earthquake Conference 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
http://1906eqconf.org

Hotel Des Arts
http://www.sfhoteldesarts.com/

San Francisco Exploratorium
http://www.exploratorium.edu/

Lawrence Hall Of Science
http://www.lawrencehallofscience.org/

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) 
http://www.sfmoma.org/

Berkeley Art Museum And Pacific Film Archive
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/

Robert Smithson
http://www.robertsmithson.com/

Spiral Jetty
http://www.spiraljetty.org/

Ken Goldberg
http://goldberg.berkeley.edu/index-flash.html

United States Geological Survey
http://www.usgs.gov/

Andrew Michael Homepage
http://quake.wr.usgs.gov/~michael/

Balboa Cinema
http://balboamovies.com/

Red Vic Movie House
http://www.redvicmoviehouse.com/

BART
http://www.bart.gov

CalTrain
www.caltrain.com

United Airlines
http://www.unitedairlines.com.au