http://uncannyvalley.org/uv Travel Guide to the Unusual Wed, 01 Mar 2006 23:07:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I wouldn’t describe the late Art Beal as a nitwit (despite not having met him). Maybe for calling his patch of hillside a ridge when it isn’t really. What this place is though is an odd ‘outsider art’ home that seems to counterbalance the nearby Hearst Castle. In fact, ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/nitt-witt-ridge/ Every community seems to have to find a way to pay the price of progress. Old historic buildings often end up at odds with new development projects, and only the most historic tend to get built around. Either way seems to cause some loss. The city of Oakland came ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/preservation-park/ This area is a combination of the public Coronado Butterfly Preserve and the private Ellwood Main Monarch Butterfly Grove. The butterflies are in the latter (because that’s where the trees are), but the best way to get there is through the former. I’m not sure why they made ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/ellwood-main-monarch-butterfly-grove/ I passed this house many many times before I found out more. You can’t exactly do a decent search with “blobby house on 280.” Thankfully I found Google Earth and a few decent KML files and I could figure out what this place is. I still am ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/flintstone-house/ Before I got here, I assumed incorrectly that there would be some kind of wires that the wind would pass through and make to sing. But upon arrival, I found the whole thing is basically just steel girders. Definitely a bit sophisticated. Timing this for a windy ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/aristides-demetrios-wind-harp/ I’m not sure why I felt the need to visit here. Maybe it’s some sort of non-native San Francisco pride. I think it has more to do with seeing The Cat’s Meow and realising what a kook William Randolph Hearst, Sr. was. I figured (turns out correctly) ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/hearst-mausoleum/ Yes, that picture was take at night, and a misty one. It looks much better in the day. This odd contraption is a national historic building, number 01000522. It is something of a gussied up pinhole camera, which offers a rotating view of the beach, the Seal Rocks, ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/camera-obscura/ I am livid about this place. I just heard about it a month ago, and was super-excited to check it out. I went to the Pulgas Water Temple, which is supposedly not nearly as cool, and that was cool, so i was amped up to see the one ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/sunol-water-temple/ A company called ESL, now TRW Turntable, wanted to test different antenna types mounted on the bottom of a plane. So they made an antenna shaped like an RC-12 Guardrail plane, and to avoid reflections of the signal off the ground, mounted it upside down. I’m not sure ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/trw-plane-antenna-test-site/ This bulb has been burning continuously since 1901, except briefly when it was moved to the new firehouse. It is a big record holder, and there are many of the awards present underneath the bulb. It is only a 4 watt bulb, meant to help the firefighters put their coat ... http://uncannyvalley.org/uv/centennial-lightbulb/