Icons, literally

Today I went on an excursion, out to the beaches of the mighty Pacific Ocean.

It was all gray and fogged in again. Not the California of the Beach Boys today but that of the Mamas and the Papas when all the leaves are brown and the sky is gray. Dreamy.

I wandered around the nearby residential neighborhood, which was once called Carville, because disused horse-drawn streetcars had been sold to beachgoers in the late 19th century to be used for beach shacks. A few houses still exist that are made of the old cars, though it’s impossible to tell from the street nowadays. Maybe this one is one, since it’s so skinny and they used to just pile the cars on top of each other:











Here’s the interior of one house that still exists, though I couldn’t find it on the street. The benches that the passengers sat on are still intact along with the gas lamps at either end.

Didn’t find a house made of a street car but I did find a house of the lord over on Geary that could have been plucked from the steppes of Russia.

This is the Holy Virgin Joy of All Who Sorrow Russian Orthodox Cathedral

The various eastern orthodoxies really know how to do a cathedral. With its golden onion tops and wall-to-wall iconographic interior, the cathedral definitely hails from the “more is more” school of interior decoration.

Pictures of saints, icons in the truest sense of the word, are amazing but I have to say the real flesh and bones of an actual saint really ups the ante.



This is Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco a for-real saint, taking visitors at his earthly resting place in the cathedral. I must admit, I did not take this picture myself but got it off the web. I wanted to go inside and see Saint John but I did not have a skirt on and I did not wish to be disrespectful. The Orthodoxies of the world have dress codes which are more strict that my nanny dress code. The Holy See does not recognize catalogue items from the Limited or track suits.

Nonetheless, I will return with proper attire another day. Not that I am some sort of obsessive who is into dark tourism of the religious sort, but seriously, I’ve only been here a little while and I’ve already seen the relics of a Buddha, and the relics of a Russian saint make for a nice fusion of perspectives.

This is Moe, striving for balance in these polemical times, saying so long.