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A review by wicked_sassy
Cool Gray City of love: 49 Views of San Francisco by Gary Kamiya
5.0
"Every tourist has felt the letdown of being unable to see some world-historical monument because they're trapped inside a guidebook's description of it." - p.82
"Like all fabled cities, San Francisco is in constant danger of disappearing into its own postcard." - p.82
"For like all great human creations, the Golden Gate Bridge reflects and distills and deepens whatever one brings to it." - p.130
"Every time one looks up from a thousand places in San Francisco and sees its mighty orange towers, or its magnificent profile, or the enormous shadow "H" it casts on the Marin hills, one is reminded that the city abruptly ends at an inexplicable gap in the coastal mountains, through which icy ocean waters rush twice a day. Every time one crosses it and looks down, one has a sense of the awe-inspiring power of that ocean, a power so vast that even the omnipotent bridge pales by comparison. And every time one looks back from the bridge at the white city, rising delicately from the sea on its narrow peninsula, one realizes just how fragile it is." - p.133
"Great cities invite you to love them in extreme close-up, to love every inch of them. And the more eccentric, convoluted, broken, and uneven they are, the more there is to love... it is precisely the irregularity of these places that allows your heart to get a grip on them, like a climber finding a tiny hold that will not give way." - p. 221
"For me, everything that is unknown and alluring and intricate and deep and wondrous about cities, especially cities at night, goes back to that flickering neon memory." - p.265
"Like all fabled cities, San Francisco is in constant danger of disappearing into its own postcard." - p.82
"For like all great human creations, the Golden Gate Bridge reflects and distills and deepens whatever one brings to it." - p.130
"Every time one looks up from a thousand places in San Francisco and sees its mighty orange towers, or its magnificent profile, or the enormous shadow "H" it casts on the Marin hills, one is reminded that the city abruptly ends at an inexplicable gap in the coastal mountains, through which icy ocean waters rush twice a day. Every time one crosses it and looks down, one has a sense of the awe-inspiring power of that ocean, a power so vast that even the omnipotent bridge pales by comparison. And every time one looks back from the bridge at the white city, rising delicately from the sea on its narrow peninsula, one realizes just how fragile it is." - p.133
"Great cities invite you to love them in extreme close-up, to love every inch of them. And the more eccentric, convoluted, broken, and uneven they are, the more there is to love... it is precisely the irregularity of these places that allows your heart to get a grip on them, like a climber finding a tiny hold that will not give way." - p. 221
"For me, everything that is unknown and alluring and intricate and deep and wondrous about cities, especially cities at night, goes back to that flickering neon memory." - p.265