One day when I was walking around in the hills behind my house, I happened upon this bizarre street. It was as though someone had taken postmodernism and tried to make it into a block of houses. Each one has its own internally complete theme, involving strange colors and sculptural elements attached to the outside walls (gold eggs, wisps of wrought iron). This led me on subsequent walks to name them: the Corbusier House, the Barn, the Preschool Blocks house, the House of Wicca… and so on.
Located near to the Alamo square's Painted Ladies is this wonderful gothic "stick" Italian villa with a long weirde history. Built by a Candy Baron in 1889, it's housed variously; a Russian Czarist nightclub, Jazz musicians, Satanists, a Manson family member, and one of the first 60's Hippy communes -Calliope. Creepy as hell enshrouded in fog after dark.
“You can taste the love” sounds like a cliché until you actually taste it and realize you are poor cynical human being who has never been to Alicia’s tamale stand! Especially on foggy days, these lovingly wrapped warm packages of deliciousness are indispensable.