Miles and I have attended Maker Faire in San Mateo every May since it started five years ago. It’s gotten huger with every passing year of course – wall to wall people, and tricky driving/parking if you don’t arrive first thing. A lot of the same themes from year to year, but always something new to feast the eyes and tease the brain. Didn’t stay as long this year, didn’t dig as deep, and didn’t get as many diggable photos as we have in the past, but still glad we went and will keep on keeping on!
Strangely, one of the best moments of the day had nothing to do with welding or LEDs or Adam Savage. It was a magical encounter with a lone man sitting at a small typewriter (yes, typewriter), selling poems. “You name the topic, you name the price.” With a friend’s 50th birthday coming up that night, I asked him to improvise on the topic of “bicycles in the city of your mind.” We carried on a conversation about French surrealist Alfred Jarry and his impact a hundred years later on the punk/new wave movement, and about how Picasso actually bought his gun after he passed, and ended with me spontaneously ejecting the sentence “This moment is a grommet through which the aglet of morning has finally emerged.” We laughed, he handed me the finished poem, and it was absolutely fantastic (sorry, I already gave it away as a gift, so can’t share it here). More at zachhouston.com.
Looks very cool, as always. Thanks for putting up pix. I got scared off by the crowds, plus couldn’t get cool teenager to accompany lame dad. Had a nice hike in Redwood Regional instead, which wasn’t bad,
Ah, bummer to hear about the lame dad syndrome – I dread the day! Sorry this year’s photos weren’t as interesting as previous years. Still a good time. Hike sounds nice.