Gotta Have Faith

Was up in the city again on Saturday, taking some photos and attending a housewarming (coincidentally, of this couple previously featured). I did basically the same area I did last week -- Market near Union Square, and then up Stockton to a little piece of Chinatown right before sunset. Brad over at CitySnaps says this area never gets old -- I'm inclined to agree. My only real complaint is that sometimes there are almost too many people, with all the craziness.

That leads me to this shot: Dude on a pedestal (would have been so perfect if it were a soapbox), shouting some evangelical Jesus thing, and basically a crazy guy from the street shouting back at him. Later that night, twenty feet away, two dudes were out with a megaphones, blasting out about how great life is, and offering free hugs to anyone who walked by. Guy with drums made out of buckets and eating fire (again). Frank Chu vs. the Nike Women's Classic. Old hands like the Jesus Loves You sign guy, and the Anti-Sex guy. Last week it was people acting out a drama about the plight of African Americans in the 1850s (cool history lesson, but why next to Forever 21?). Guy dressed up in a Union Square outfit like security, handing out maps to anyone who'll listen.

I spent half a day around this area, and I couldn't tell you which of these people are on serious, which ones of them are on drugs, which ones are performance art, and which ones are just cosplaying.

If god believes in Irony like I do, it's the Union Square map guy.

I was telling a friend about all this, and he was making noises about 'only in San Francisco'. Maybe so, but it's more than that -- everybody comes to the place with all the people for attention. Attention directly to get off on it, attention fired and then cooled second hand the form of money, and attention third hand photog style where we try to get attention for shots of people getting attention. ;)