For the Quarter Finals of the World Cup, the city of Buenos Aires had set up giant screens in an outdoor open space for people to come and watch the game against Germany. There was such a great influx of people to the park, metros were full, vuvuzelas roaring all over the place, everybody dressed in blue and white and proud of their country and their team. The joy was short lasted though. The whole crowd was enthusiastic and cheering for Argentina for about 2-3 minutes till that first goal by Germany. That goal quieted the crowds and made it a very tame crowd. For the rest of the match, the cheer did not pick up at all even when Argentina was attacking. It was a fun experience watching the game together with such a big crowd, but sad as well to see all the sad faces and sad people all round the city after the 4-0 outcome.

 

 

Every Valentine's day, there's a Pillow Fight Flash Mob in San Francisco. Many hundreds of people gather at a public space and pillow fight each other !! Today, yet again, another valentine's day, another pillow fight !!

Read more about the SF Pillow fight here.

http://www.pillowfight.info/

Here's a video I took of the event

"Don't just cry mournfully over the individuals, dreams and influences that have helped make you what you are. Dance for them; sing for them; honor them; leap into the air and kiss the sky for them."

"Dia de los Muertos is a traditional Meso-American holiday dedicated to the ancestors; it honors both death and the cycle of life. In Mexico, neighbors gather in local cemeteries to share food, music, and fun with their extended community, both living and departed. The celebration acknowledges that we still have a relationship with our ancestors and loved ones that have passed away.

In San Francisco, Day of the Dead has been celebrated since the early 70s with art, music, performances and a walking procession, which help us contemplate our existence and mortality -- a moment to remember deceased friends and family, and our connections beyond our immediate concerns."

excerpts from http://www.dayofthedeadsf.org/

I had missed this event for the past two years and finally manage to go this year and it was awesome. Here are some pics from it.

 

Sent from my iPhone

Every last Friday of the month, there's a critical mass event in San Francisco. Many cyclists gather by and we just mass cycle throughout the city.  Lots of fun and good exercise (but many angry motorists) at the blocked traffic and all.

Its the one before last Stern Grove Free Concert series (http://www.sterngrove.org) this Sunday. They had SF Ballet (http://www.sfballet.org/) performing today.

Decided to go and check it out. it was my first live ballet performance ever and it was awesome ! loved it.

Every month, the city of San Francisco organizes Sunday Streets (http://sundaystreetssf.com/)  in one neighborhood, where they close off the streets and people can just enjoy walking, biking on the streets in 'safer' environment (intro from website :: Sunday Streets creates a safe, fun, car-free place for people to get out and get active in San Francisco neighborhoods.) They also have many activities planned on the streets by different group, free bike rentals, roller skates rentals etc.. pretty fun. This week they had it in the mission district (http://sundaystreetssf.com/?page_id=474). It was awesome. Enjoyed it a lot and disovered many new places in the mission, in places i rarely ventured. After SF streets, we went to Dolores park to a huge crowd, where the SF symphony orchestra was playing for free. Annie had planned a potluck picnic where it was great to meet up and spend the sunday afternoon in great company and great food !

SF Pride 2009 at the Civic Center. Had some awesome bands, awesome entertainment, people watching and great celebration of Freedom of Choices !!

I was home Saturday night, chilling out, with no big plans. I checked twitter and found many tweets mentioning a massive street party happening right now in the Castro district. Could not stay home and miss it. So headed out there and indeed it was a huge mega crowd, celebrating Pride.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Saturday

Last weekend, I did the bay2breakers race again with a few friends. We deciced to be scrabble letters. We bought some plain white t-shirts and had drawn scrabble pieces and their points on it, hoping we'd make words with ourselves along the way, but we did not :) Was much more interesting to watch the other people. Weather was extremely hot that day, but did not prevent any of the crazy people to enjoy the race. The race had its usual quota of naked people, body painted people, huge drink floats, theme floats etc.. Check out the pics for some moments from it.